My Kind of School
by MarsAres
Summary: A series of slice of life chapters set in Roulette Academy, the /r/GIRLSundPANZER custom school. Come check us out! If you feel intimidated by the word count, don't be. Early chapters are short because every team gets a chapter dedicated to them in a bite-sized chunk of 3000 words. Most of that word count is because of the battle against Anzio!
1. Two of Clubs

**Chapter 1: Two of Clubs**

* * *

With a cheerful hum, Nelson flicked on her electric kettle. Continuing to hum the tune to Heart of Oak, she opened her cupboard and grabbed her favourite mug, one she had custom made with a Matilda II colour palette. It was sandy coloured with a red trim around the lip and base, and a yellow handle, with an 'N' for 'Nelson' printed on the front in black Stencil font.

When at home, Nelson preferred to use mugs over the tea cup and saucer combination, which everyone else said was counter-intuitive. Yes, it was true the cups and saucers were more delicate, but she took those into the tank for appearance's sake. With St. Gloriana spreading the belief that all of the British drank tea out of cups all the time, she thought it'd be funny to play along.

Plus, you could fit more tea in a mug.

Nelson was a student at Roulette Academy, a Las Vegas themed schoolship. Like a lot of schools, it had a Tankery club, of which nelson was a member. She was the loader of the M6 heavy tank.

Of the five members of the M6, Nelson was the shortest, with green eyes and shoulder-length straight brown hair that was sometimes compared to that of Miho Nishizumi's. But the most notable feature of Nelson's was her smile. She was often told she had a lovely smile that radiated happiness and could melt the heart of any man she wanted. Too bad she swung the other way.

She hadn't realised that she'd broke into a whistle to hear herself over the boiling kettle. She turned it off and continued to make her fifth cup of tea of the day.

And then the doorbell to her flat went off.

"One o'clock, right on time!" she noted.

Stirring the cup of tea as she moved, Nelson went to answer the door. And on the other side, Friedrich, Yekaterina, De Brack and Custer were there, just as expected.

"Hello, ladies!" she said. "Wow, it's weird not seeing you in a uniform."

"That's what I said when we arrived," said Friedrich.

Friedrich was the commander of the M6, and the overall commander of the entire Tankery club. She had long, thick blonde hair and a pair of beautiful crystal blue eyes. Despite her German descent, she liked to wear a French cavalry officer pelisse over her clothes, including her school uniform. The school faculty allowed it so long as she wore it unbuttoned.

"Not you, Friedrich," said Nelson, "When I look at you all I see a pelisse."

"Does that mean you imagine me without any clothes underneath?" Friedrich joked.

"Always," Nelson giggled. "Anyway, please come in."

Nelson gestured into her flat, not at the expense of taking a sip of her tea, of course.

"I think this is the first time I've ever been in your apartment," said Custer.

"Flat, Custer, it's a flat," said Nelson.

"Where I come from, we call 'em apartments."

"And in my house, you will call it a flat," Nelson gae a sweet smile. There wasn't any hidden maliciousness behind it, the two had a pseudo in-joke arguing over the correct terms for things because of their origins. First it was boot or trunk, then petrol or gas, then lift or elevator, and now...

"Okay, sure, but I still say it's an apartment."

Custer was the radio operator of the team. Despite her shyness, she didn't mind sticking out by wearing a cowboy hat everywhere she went, mostly because amongst her friends she would look weird for _not_ wearing some form of conspicuous clothing. Nelson was the only one that didn't wear anything out of the ordinary, even though she had a British naval officer's cap in her room on display.

Custer had pale, almost milky, blue eyes and very long brown hair that she didn't bother combing much, she claimed it complimented the cowboy hat look. She was also rarely ever seen without her trumpet. Today was no exception.

"Make yourselves at home," Nelson offered, "Can I get anyone a cup of tea?"

It was a futile offer, evident by the fact she got 'no's in response. Most of them were coffee drinkers, but Nelson insisted on asking anyway. "Remember your Ps and Qs" as her father said.

Nelson's flat had a living room - or "lounge" as Custer insisted - with a sofa - couch - that could fit three small schoolgirls on it easily, and two armchairs, all around a glass coffee table.

"So, what are doing?" asked Yekaterina, sitting in one of the armchairs.

Nelson set her mug down on the coffee table, near the corner facing the other armchair as the others had taken the sofa.

"We're playing Risk!" Nelson answered, and then went to get the box.

"Oh, sweet!" said Friedrich and De Brack in unison.

"Hey, Yekatrina," said Custer, using the nickname she gave her, "You want to team up against these two?" she gestured a thumb to Friedrich and De Brack sitting next to her.

"That seems a little unfair," she answered in her soft voice.

"Not against these two, it's not!"

"I'll think about it," her face was completely unfaltered. She meant it a joke, but it genuinely sounded like she was going to consider a comradeship.

Yekaterina was the team's gunner, and was of Russian descent. She wore an ushanka hat with a shiny black clubs emblem pinned on the front, clubs being their tank's team. She had long, silky black hair that just reached beyond her shoulders, and a pair of frosty blue eyes. She was also the tallest in the team.

Nelson came back with the Risk box and set it down on the table.

"Hey, how about we start with our territories that we're from?" asked Custer.

"Yeah, how about we don't?" said De Brack, "Because then Nelson, Friedrich and I will have one territory, you'll have four and Yekaterina will have half of Asia."

"It was worth a shot," Custer chuckled.

Despite shooting down that suggestion, as each player took it in turn to place a unit down on the map the girls still picked their respective country, with Custer picking Eastern United States and Yekaterina picking Ural.

After an hour of playing, Custer had already taken control of North America. Nelson's forces had been split between Oceania and western Europe, with her cannons sitting in Iceland and shooting any American that dared try crossing the sea.

Friedrich had ruling over Africa and was one move away from taking South America away from Custer and one lone De Brak soldier in Argentina, who seemed to be the luckiest bastard on Earth, having fended off ten of Custer's soldiers and preventing her from gaining conquest over the entire western hemisphere.

Yekaterina had been pushed into eastern Asia, from Siam all the way to Kamchatka, but had plenty of forces to bulk up her territories to defend against the sweep across Asia being led by De Brak.

But now it was De Brak's turn.

"Watch out, ladies," she said, "The cavalry's coming!" and she then placed three face up cards on the table. All of them matched, and what's more, India and Afghanistan were two of the three cards, territories which she controlled.

"So on top of the 3 you already get, that's..." Nelson quickly did the maths in her head as she fished out some plastic pieces from the box beside her, "Another sixteen."

Yekaterina grimaced.

"Damn," said Friedrich, "I wish you the best, Yekaterina."

As Nelson handed the pieces to De Brak over the table, the latter began counting them in her hand before looking up in disgust.

"Nelson!" she cried, holding up a cannon.

"Oh yeah, sorry," Nelson took the cannon back and traded it for two cavalry.

De Brak then distributed a few of the soldiers in southern Europe just in case Nelson or Friedrich got any funny ideas (which she wouldn't be surprised if they did), and then bulked up her units in India.

"Custer, darling," she said, "If you would do the honours."

Custer's face lit up, and she grabbed the trumpet she had placed on the floor beside her and then, treating it like a bugle, blew a cavalry charge tune.

De Brak was the driver of the group for the M6. She was second only to Friedrich in terms of strategy prowess, making her the sub-commander and Friedrich's advisor during war meetings. Like the rest of the girls in this circle of friends, she wasn't fully Japanese, as she hailed from the land of France. She was probably the most patriotic of the five, and loved all things French. Completing the "sore thumb" aesthetic, she wore a red Czapka with gold trimmings. She had shoulder length gold hair that matched her cap, and a pair of deep blue eyes.

"Well, while this is happening, I'm going to make a cup of tea," said Nelson.

"Yeah, this is going to take a while," said Yekaterina, leaning forwards in her chair, pre-emptively grabbing the dice.

While De Brak's army of cavalry and men far outnumbered one of Yekaterina's territories, it was going to come down to the luck of the dice if she could sweep claim the rest of Asia before her forces were whittled down too much. She could end up with just one lone soldier trying to take on all the forces of of Kamchatka.

Nelson smiled as she made her tea, finding the mixed cries of triumph and dismay that erupted every few seconds as dice were rolled very amusing.

"Anyone for a cup of-?"

"Merde!"

"Never mind."

When Nelson came back, the board had changed somewhat.

"Oh, dear, are you out?"

"Yeah, I'm out," said Yekaterina, though she didn't seem annoyed or phased by it. Actually, Nelson was pretty sure she hadn't heard her raise her voice at all during that last battle. Yekaterina was often like that, taking everything as it came and not seeming affected by anything.

"You know what this means now, don't you?" said Friedrich to De Brak.

De Brak sighed, "Yeah, yeah, I'm now going to get attacked from all sides."

And sure enough, by De Brak's next turn everyone had managed to gain a foothold in Asia, with Custer taking Kamchatka, Nelson taking Siam from Oceania and Friedrich sneaking into the Middle East.

The game continued, with Yekaterina giving some strategy advice to Nelson and Custer.

"Not feeling generous towards either of us, are you Yekaterina?" Friedrich chuckled, wrapping an arm around De Brak.

"I just think that the others could do with some extra help to at least be on your level, Commander," Yekaterina answered honestly.

Friedrich laughed. "Don't call me commander here, Yekaterina, we're meant to be relaxing, forgetting about Tankery."

"Sorry," she said, and left it at that, turning her gaze back to the board.

"I hope everyone's having fun," said Nelson.

"Oh yeah!" Custer nodded, "This was a good idea, Nelson."

"Yes," said Yekaterina, "We were a little overworked from Tankery."

"I just thought that we never really do anything together outside of the tank," said Nelson, "Plus, Friedrich needed to stop pouring over all that paperwork."

"Eugh, don't remind me," said Friedrich, "I'm still not done with that."

"What _is_ all of that?" asked Custer, "I never see you not looking at something with the Tankery Federation stamp on it."

"Most of it is to do with the transferral of the new Valiant, I'm trying to get it modded, which isn't allowed, but I'm trying to argue that this is an outstanding circumstance."

"Zip it!" said De Brak, "No more Tankery! Forget Tankery! Eyes on the prize!"

"Oh yeah," Friedrich realised she was going back into Commander mode. "No more Tankery. World domination. Much more important. Maybe I'll be the first German to do it right."

" _Friedrich_!" De Brak hissed, trying to look shocked but couldn't help but laugh.

Custer had also burst out laughing, with Nelson choking on her tea. Even Yekaterina had cracked a grin.

The game continued for another hour and a half, eventually coming to a back and forth clash between Friedrich and De Brak.

De Brak has chased Nelson into Australia and eliminated her there, while Friedrich finished her off in Europe, pushing De Brak out and claiming the continent for herself. She had also finished claiming South America, eradicating Custer's forces and that one soldier of De Brak's whose luck had finally run out.

De Brak had managed to take back cling onto control of Asia. With this deadly force on her doorstep, Custer had been forced to spread her armies quite thin, allowing Friedrich to move in and take control of the southern half of America, while De Brak met her halfway, eliminating Custer in the process.

Now there were two front lines. Ukraine, Southern Europe and Egypt defending against the Asian forces; and the second between the US and Canada.

In a bold move, Friedrich let De Brak push her back to Central America. De Brak took the bait, which now meant Friedrich only needed to put troops on one territory against De Brak's forces, while De Brak had to defend Western and Eastern United States.

De Brak also noticed that Friedrich wasn't bulking up her forces in Ukraine as much as she thought she should. What a fool! Ukraine was the hardest territory to keep control of!

De Brak attacked Ukraine from Ural, Afghanistan and the Middle East, quickly claiming it and shattering Friedrich's control over Europe.

"That was a very poor move, dear Friedrich," said De Brak. "Could this be the beginning of the end to your empire?"

Friedrich glanced over at her, and looked into her eyes, without saying a word, a small smile across her lips.

De Brak became unsettled.

"Don't make that face! That's the face you make when you have a plan!"

Friedrich kept the stare going, causing De Brak to wriggle under her gaze. De Brak started sweating.

"What are you doing?!""

Friedrich then very slowly, relishing in the moment, placed down three cards.

"Oh, damn!" said Nelson, "That's..." she whispered a few numbers, counting to her herself, "35 troops!"

De Brak squealed.

Friedrich placed her units down on the map, still without saying a word and her shit-eating smile plastered on her face. She placed some in Central America, she placed some in Egypt, and she also placed some...

"Oh, you forgot to defend Greenland."

...in Iceland.

"Noooooo!"

"Custer," Friedrich leaned over to the girl, "I think some music would be appropriate."

Custer leapt at the chance.

And with Ride of the Valkyries playing in one ear, and De Brak's exaggerated sobs in the other, Friedrich ploughed through Greenland and Canada, then this force and the one in Central America pincer attacked De Brak's army. They then proceeded to claim all of North America.

On the other side of the world, her army in Egypt cut straight through the western Asian forces, having been weakened from attacking Ukraine. With the combined strength of this army and her one in Southern Europe, Friedrich took back Europe, having destroyed De Brak's control over Asia in the process.

"I concede," De Brak whined.

"Aw, really?" Friedrich asked.

"Yeah, I don't have any cards, I'll get barely any soldiers next turn, and then on yours you'll just finish me off," she then dropped the act and gave a beaming smile, offering her hand to Friedrich, "Well done, Commander, that was a good game."

Friedrich returned the hand shake in kind.

"Well, that was fun!" said Custer.

"Yeah, thanks again for inviting us, Nelson," said Friedrich.

"No worries, Friedrich," Nelson gestured with her fresh cup of tea.

"I need to be somewhere," Yekaterina said quietly, almost unheard, "Dance practice."

"Oh yeah," said Custer, checking her watch, "Jazz club starts soon."

"And I _need_ to finish my paperwork," said Friedrich.

"I'll show you all out, then," said Nelson, getting up from her seat.

The girls left with good spirits and happy goodbyes. Nelson closed the door with a beaming smile. She was quite chuffed the afternoon went well. It was nice to do things with her friends outside of Tankery.

* * *

 **A/N: A few people have asked about the origin of the names. I didn't do a good job of explaining that these are actually nicknames that the girls have given themselves. The character sheet I was working with doesn't mention their real names, so I sort of accidentally started to think of these nicknames as their real ones. Silly me.**


	2. Eight of Spades

**Chapter 2: Eight of Spades**

 **A/N: Something I would like to clarify is that these chapters are not necessarily in chronological order. The first chapter takes place around the time the club got the Valiant, for example, while this one takes place shortly after the club first started. I try to establish this, but with the previous chapter contradicting information that's already been established, it will probably still cause confusion.**

* * *

Keeping true to its Las Vegas inspiration, Roulette Academy's school ship featured its very own Strip, a main road that almost ran the length of the deck, forming the spine of the gargantuan carrier, with a strip of palm trees running down the middle separating the two lanes. At the very end of the Strip towards the bow end was the entrance to the school grounds.

Along the Strip were five huge buildings, which doubled as both school dormitories and entertainment venues, with additional restaurants, cafes and shops sandwiched in between the dorm grounds. The Strip was always alive, a lot of the establishments were open 24/7 to support the wild night lives of the students and normal citizens. All the dorm rooms featured sound proofing to help the students sleep at night from the non-stop raving clubs and honking cars; and you better make sure you close your curtains at night or all the neon and spotlights along the Strip will light up your room like a Christmas tree.

Scattered about on the rest of the deck were standard suburb roads with normal convenience stores that closed at nine, playgrounds for the kiddies and apartment complexes for those that really couldn't get along with the nocturnal lifestyle of the Strip. Friedrich, Nelson, Yekaterina, De Brak and Custer lived in such apartment complexes, as they tended to focus on their studies and simply preferred the quieter neighbourhood anyway.

Of the five dorm buildings, four were themed around other schools. The fifth was designed after it was discovered that filling half a student campus with nightclubs and restaurants that were open every hour of the night _probably_ wasn't the best idea even if it did wonders for the community's economy.

So the unthemed fifth building was built to hold just dorm rooms, even going so far as to remove the hotel portion that the other four featured. It was _just_ for students and staff. But of course, the architects couldn't hep themselves and still designed it to resemble an existing Las Vegas hotel complex like they had done for the last four.

The rooms of the unthemed dorm were the cheapest and the least exciting, as they were just studio apartments. The dorm rooms in the other buildings were built like luxury hotel rooms.

The unthemed dorm resembled the MGM Grand. Four tall but narrow buildings arranged into a cross. It was rather plain looking in comparison to the other hotels, but it still featured a strip of green lights along every floor.

And in room 111, Airi was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She sighed boredly.

"I wonder what Akisa's up to," she wondered aloud.

Turning over onto her belly, Airi pulled out her phone from her pocket and started texting her girlfriend. She decided to be a little flirty with it, hoping that might spark a discussion. But no response. It was mid-afternoon, she was probably taking a nap.

"Eurgh," Airi scoffed, dropping the phone on her bed and burying her face in the covers, "Sooooo bored!"

The phone buzzed with a message. Airi excitedly picked it back up, expecting Akisa to have responded, but her smile disappeared when she saw it was just a group chat message.

But then it returned again when she saw it was from the Tankery club, specifically in the Roulette Tankery Commanders' group chat. Friedrich had just sent out a message alerting all the commanders that she was about to open the garages.

Airi wasn't actually a commander of any of the tanks. In fact, she wasn't even dedicated to any crew. Airi loved tanks - she had a Nenoroid model of a Pershing sitting on her bedside table - so when Roulette Academy announced it was opening a Tankery club she signed up as soon as she could. At the time - and in fact, still today - the club only boasted an M6, a Chaffee and a Nahuel, and exactly enough students had already signed up to crew them all, leaving Airi as the odd one out.

"B-but... what about me...?" Airi had asked when all the crews had been delegated.

Airi remembered Friedrich then thinking pensively, bringing a curled up finger to her chin as she thought. Friedrich didn't want to turn her away, she wanted everyone to join in on the fun. And then Nelson, a cup of tea in hand, had appeared next to Friedrich.

"I wouldn't mind if we took it in turns to load the M6, Friedrich," she said with a sweet smile. Much to Airi's delight, as she loved American tanks the most.

"You sure, Nelson?" Friedrich asked. "I wouldn't want you to miss out."

"Not at all! I'll need breaks in between practices to give my arms a rest, anyway."

"Are you sure it's not just because you want a tea break?" Friedrich had asked with a smirk.

Nelson simply put a finger to her lip with a playful _shhh_.

Airi snapped awake from her daydream as her phone buzzed again when Sakura, the commander of the Chaffee, responded with "Awesome! I'll get the girls and we'll see you there!"

Airi quickly responded with "I'm on my way!" and she leapt up from her bed. She checked herself in the mirror to make sure she was fit to go outside.

Airi, like most of the girls in her circle of friends, was quite short. She had orange hair that was so short it barely reached her shoulders, but not quite short enough to be a pixie cut. Her eyes were a strange colour that some saw as green and others as gold.

She was still wearing her nightclub outfit from last night that she had woken up in this morning, a low cut blue crop top that might as well just be a sports bra.

"Can't be going to Tankery in this," she giggled to herself.

She took it off and wore one of the many white polo shirts she had kept from her tennis years in middle school, and a blue skirt. She had a jewellery box on her mantelpiece that held a large collection of fake flowers, and she never failed to leave home without one. He decided to wear a white one to match the shirt.

When she arrived at the garages, Friedrich gave her usual briefing. Today's practice was going to focus on suppression, so the gunners would need to make sure they were always aiming at the target and loaders would need to make sure they never didn't have a shell in their hands.

Airi was excited, but as usual, Nelson was the first to take the loader's position, since it was officially her crew, after all. That didn't stop Airi from practising, though. Airi managed to catch the mechanics bored one day and asked them to make her a loader's training apparatus, which was just a hole cut into a piece of wood with a horizontal slide on it for her to shove shells through.

So while Nelson was practising in the field, Airi was in the garage, a big rack of shells at her side. She grunted and cursed as she tried to shovel them through as quickly as she could, timing her reloads to the sound of the guns firing in the field, hoping she could reload faster than they could.

With every shell she shoved through with her fist, she felt her arms weakening. The shells weighed fifteen pounds each, and with every one she had to bend over at in her stool, grab it with both hands, pick it up, place it on the rail and shove it through. When she first used the apparatus she liked to wait until the shell stopped clattering when it hit the pile on the other side, but there was no time for that now. Now she was even shoving the shell through with one hand while picking up the next with the other.

After several minutes of this, her muscles were screaming at her to stop, but she still tried to carry on. Huffing, she pulled the next shell out of the rack and struggled and strained to lift it higher than her waist. It was like she had just done thirty push-ups and was now struggling to raise her hands above her shoulders, a feat she was not a stranger to in her experience of sport.

But it was no use, she couldn't lift it. Defeated, she tried to let the shell down, but her arms had other ideas. Relieved they no longer needed to hold the thing any more, her grip gave up and the shell clattered to the floor.

Airi reached her back to give it a crack with a grunt, and did some breathing exercises. Deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth, just like her sports sensei had taught her.

"That was, umm..." said a girly voice.

Airi turned to see a tiny girl standing at the garage doors, with a big childish smile on her face, and one arm across her body as she held the other. Her black hair was tied into a pair of pigtails with pink ribbons, which went along with her pink clothes.

"That was impressive," she managed to say.

"Oh, thanks," Airi huffed. "How long have you been there?"

"Not long," said the girl, "I came to the garages to have a look around and I heard you and wondered what was happening."

"How did you get onto the school grounds? Kids aren't allowed near the tanks."

The girl's originally shy expression changed to a pout. "I'm a student here."

"O-oh!" Airi stuttered, "I'm sorry, I didn't realise. Umm... why don't you come over here, I don't bite."

The girl tentatively approached.

"What's your name?" Airi asked.

"Maria," the girl responded.

"Oh, that's a nice name. Where does it come from?"

"Germany. Like me."

"Oh, that's awesome!" Airi said with a smile, hoping she could repair some bridges she accidentally damaged if she came across as friendly. "What brings you to the garages, Maria?"

"You don't have to talk to me like I'm a child. I'm a second year."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, I- wait, _second_ year! You're above me!"

Maria nodded. "It's the height, isn't it?"

"I'll be honest, yeah it is."

 _And the colour, the hair, the bows and the shy attitude_ , Airi thought to herself.

"I used to go to Kuromorimine," said Maria, "I was a driver there and wanted to come check the tanks out, but they sound like they're out practising."

"Yeah, they are," Airi sighed, "If you're hoping to crew one, you're out of luck. There's only three and they're all taken."

"Then why are you here?" Maria asked, cocking her head to one side.

"Because I have to train harder since I'm not in the tank as much, I need to make up for it."

"Does your commander see how hard you train?"

"She knows I do, she's always pointing out how many shells I make a pile out of when she comes back," Airi laughed.

"Then why hasn't she found you a tank, yet?" Maria asked.

"Huh?"

"At Kuromorimine, if our commander saw the amount of effort one student was putting in for Tankery, she'd probably promote them to tank commander!"

"Yeah, well, it's not that easy. Tanks are expensive."

"Is your commander nice?"

"Eh?"

"Is your commander nice?" Maria repeated.

"Friedrich's wonderful!" said Airi, stars in her eyes, "She cares so much about us, she always wants to make sure we're getting our share of fun in the sport. And she's amazing in the tank as well! She's always thinking about strategies, choosing the best one, always gives orders in a calm way-"

Airi only just realised Maria was smirking.

"What?" Airi asked.

"It almost sounds like you've got a crush."

Airi scoffed, "I already have a girlfriend. Nobody could replace my Akisa."

Maria chuckled.

"Well, if your commander is so amazing, why don't you just ask her to get a tank for you? Surely she would say yes?"

"But who else would crew it?" Airi grumbled.

"Me!" said Maria, jabbing a thumb into her chest, "I was a good driver back at Kuromori! And I'm sure your girlfriend would join in, too!"

Airi thought about it for a moment. That was only three people. Was there anyone else she might be able to help crew the tank? Hmm... Akisa's sister maybe?

Airi started to nod. "Yeah, this might just work!"

* * *

Airi decided she would ask Friedrich after the second practice session. She figured that if she could performed well, she might be able to put Friedrich in a good enough mood that she'd be more likely to say yes. She had to do that with her sports sensei once to get the tennis court re-tarmacked.

For the practice, Friedrich had the Nahuel crew act as a target hiding in a copse of trees, while the M6 and Pershing crew had to continuously attack them from outside. It was an exercise in seeing how long they could keep the Nahuel crew suppressed long enough before they managed to escape.

Airi really pushed herself for the match.

"Yeka!" Friedrich commanded, "They're making a move. Twelve degrees to the right. Aim!"

Airi was already shoving the shell into the gun. "Up!"

"Ready!" Yekaterina shouted.

"Fire!"

The M6 fired.

"Keep them suppressed!" Friedrich ordered. "Discourage them from going that way! Next shell!"

"Up!"

"Ready!"

"Fire!"

The M6 fired. The shell just landed in front of the Nahuel and Friedrich could see the tank brake harshly.

"Next she-"

"Up!"

"Ready!"

"Uh... fire!"

The M6 fired.

"Next-"

"Up!"

"... hm? oh! Ready!"

"Fire!"

* * *

"I gotta say, Airi," said Friedrich as the M6 pulled into the garage, "That was pretty impressive."

"Thank you, commander!" said Airi as she hopped out of the loader's hatch.

As everyone climbed down from their tanks, Friedrich gave her closing brief. After that, the club started to disperse.

"Um... Friedrich," said Airi, approaching her commander, "There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Fire away, Airi," Friedrich smiled.

"I was... well... I was hoping we might be able to find another tank for the club."

Friedrich placed a curled up finger to her chin, exactly the same way she did when she wondered how Airi was going to join in on day one.

"Hmm, do you have anyone to crew it?"

"Oh yes!" Airi nodded enthusiastically, though she wasn't a hundred per cent sure if her girlfriend or her sister would join in. She wasn't thinking though, she just wanted her own tank.

"Tanks are expensive though, Airi," Friedrich said, sucking air in through her teeth.

"Surely we can't get a tank in different ways, though? Buying can't be the only way!"

"So you want to steal one?" Friedrich chuckled.

"It does sound like that's what I mean, didn't it?" Airi said, sticking her tongue out.

"But if not buying or stealing, how else?"

Airi did some thinking of her own for a moment. And then she snapped her fingers.

"Friedrich! We live in Vegas!"

"Well, actually we live at Roulette Aca-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, but it might as well be Vegas. And in Vegas, if you want something, what do you do?"

Friedrich raised an eyebrow as she tried to figure out what Airi meant, and then her eyes lit up.

"You gamble it!" she said, and then clapped her hands together, "I'll make some calls!"

* * *

Airi knocked on the door to the apartment. It didn't take long for it to be answered.

"Oh, hi Airi!" said Yui, with a bit of a forced smile.

Yui was Akisa's fraternal twin sister, and the two shared the apartment together. Akisa moved in after being kicked out of the dorms for... reasons. Yui had shoulder length blonde hair that she tied into a ponytail, and very saturated blue eyes.

"Hi, Yui. Is Akisa in?"

"Yeah, but she's been asleep all day."

"You think that's going to stop me?"

Yui chuckled. "I guess not, come in."

With a "thanks", Airi entered the apartment and made a bee line for Akisa's room. She didn't bother knocking, she hated it when Akisa slept in.

The curtains were drawn, but the sun was out, and with the cloudless sky, the room was filled with a warm light. Hanging above the bed was a Mosin-Nagant Russian rifle replica, polished to a shine. On a rack in the corner was an M4 carbine airsoft gun, and a genuine Arisaka Japanese rifle with the firing pin removed. Hanging just to the right of the Nagant was a framed certificate.

 _Akisa "Hawkeye" Toudou  
National shooting championship  
3rd place  
2006_

Every time Airi came into the room she thought to herself it was no surprise that these guns - plus the five other replicas Akisa had stored in her closet - were the reason the principal kicked her out of the dorms because "Campus dorms are no place for gun storage."

Lying in bed, snuggled up in her covers, was Airi's girlfriend Akisa.

Airi climbed onto the bed and straddled her, keeping herself aloft with her hands and knees. She waited to see if her presence might wake her girlfriend up.

No such luck.

She leant forward and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. That managed to make her stir.

Airi couldn't help but giggle, and that was enough for Akisa's eyes to groggily open.

"Rise and shine, lazybones!" said Airi.

Akisa pulled the covers over her face.

"Hoho no!" said Airi, grabbing the covers and trying to pull them off. "It's two in the afternoon, get out of bed!"

From under the covers, Akisa jabbed a finger into Airi's side.

"Aah!" Airi squeaked, collapsing on top of her girlfriend with a giggle.

Akisa grabbed her girlfriend like a flytrap and kept jabbing fingers into her side.

"No!" Airi squealed, though she was laughing uncontrollably. "P-please, st-stop!"

"You think you can come into _my_ room while _I'm_ sleeping and not suffer the consequences?"

"I'm sorry!"

"That's not good enough!"

Akisa slipped her hands under Airi's shirt and started tickling her belly.

"No! Not there!"

But Akisa didn't stop, she enjoyed putting Airi into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. But she knew when to stop, and finally let her go.

Airi lay on top of her girlfriend, residue mini giggles escaping from time to time. She pulled the covers off her girlfriend's face and looked into her eyes. Her beautiful green eyes.

"Well, I'm awake now," said Akisa. "Get off, I'll be out in a moment."

"Okay," said Airi, hopping off the bed.

* * *

Yui made some green tea for them all, setting the tray down at the dining table and taking a seat. When Akisa came out, Airi took a moment to admire her. She was always left awestruck by her beautiful, shiny purple dyed hair that reached down to her hips, combed straight to perfection. Purple was Airi's favourite colour.

"Thanks, sis," said Akisa, picking up a cup and leaning against the back of a chair.

"So," said Yui, "To what do we owe the pleasure, Airi?"

"Is it weird for me to come visit you?" Airi joked, crossing her legs in her seat at the table.

"It's weird that you've left the city," said Akisa, knowing why Yui felt the need to ask. "What happened to, and I quote, "Screw the suburbs, the lights aren't pretty"?"

"I was _drunk_!" said Airi.

"You had one cocktail," said Yui.

"I was still drunk!"

"Oh, believe me, I know," Akisa said with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows before taking a sip of her tea.

"Oh God, what did I do?" asked Airi.

"Not while my sister's here," Akisa shook her head.

Yui held her head in her hand as she tried to stop thinking about what her sister could possible be implying.

"Aaaaaaanyway..." said Airi, "I'm here to ask you if you'd like to join me in Tankery," she said, looking at Akisa, setting her cup down on the table.

"You know I would _love_ to join Tankery with you, but I thought they didn't have a tank?"

"That might be about to change," said Airi, leaning back in her chair and slipping an arm over the backrest. "I might have been able to negotiate a deal with Friedrich."

"Are you sure 'Seduced' isn't a better word?" Yui quipped.

"No," Airi answered matter-of-factly, "I actually convinced Friedrich to try finding me a tank."

"And how is she going to do that?" Yui challenged.

Airi's phone started to ring. She looked at it and saw it was Friedrich.

"Let's find out," she answered Yui and pressed the green button on her phone. "Hello, commander?"

"Suck up," Yui whispered into her cup. Airi jokingly flipped her off.

" _Airi, we might have a deal._ "

"Awesome! With who?"

" _Pravda said they're willing to talk to us about a tank trade._ "

"A trade? But I thought the point was to _get_ a tank?"

" _It was the only way I could get them to say yes. I didn't want to discuss the potential gambling idea straight away._ "

"So you're taking a gamble with this?" Airi said with a smirk.

" _Haha! You could say that. Would you like to come along?_ "

"Yeah, sure! It'll be nice to see a different school ship."

" _Excellent. We're leaving in about two hours, we're going by boat. See you at the boat drop off point._ "

"Bye, commander," and she hung up.

Airi put her phone down on the table with a smile that gave away she was feeling rather pleased with herself.

"So you're going to Pravda to trade a tank?" asked Yui with a cocked eyebrow.

"Hopefully not. Hopefully we're going to Pravda to _get_ a tank."

"Pravda, ey?" Akisa asked curiously, "Mind if I come along?"

"Of course!" said Airi, "But... why?"

"I'm quarter Russian, remember?" said Akisa, "It'd be nice to see the school. Want to come, sis?"

"No thanks," said Yui with a hand wave, "Two's a group, three's a crowd, four is an unlucky number."

Akisa tutted and rolled her eyes. She knew her sister wasn't superstitious and probably just wanted to stay behind to practice the guitar. Or because she didn't want to come with Airi. She finished her tea.

* * *

Once they arrived at Pravda, they were greeted by a very tall woman with lovely long black hair, and what Yui would've described as a "resting bitch face" if she were there.

"You must be Nonna," Friedrich waved her down.

"Good afternoon, welcome to Pravda," the girl greeted, her expression as solid as ice, "Please follow me to Katyusha's personal lounge," she said with an outstretched hand.

Friedrich, Airi and Akisa were taken to a large room of a rather splendid decor. Despite the lavish aesthetic, there was only one small round table in the middle of the room with a chair on one side and three on the other.

"If you would please take a seat," Nonna offered, "I will be through with drinks in a moment. Do our guests have any preferences?"

"I... think I'm alright, thanks," said Airi, somewhat afraid of the girl and not feeling like she couldn't trust her to not put some Soviet sleeping powder in her cup.

"A white coffee, please, Nonna," said Friedrich, unfazed by this expressionless Russian, considering she had one of her own literally part of her crew.

"I'll have a glass of mors, пожалуйста," said Akisa, and Airi could've sworn she saw the smallest attempt at a smile from Nonna.

"Of course," Nonna replied with a bow, and left to gather the beverages. The girls took their seats.

"You speak Russian?" Friedrich asked Akisa.

"I have Russian roots, I like to keep in touch with them," said Akisa.

"So why Roulette instead of Pravda?" asked Friedrich.

"Because Airi wanted to go to Roulette, and I love her more than my heritage," she replied with a smile.

Airi blushed a red deeper than the Roulette Academy emblem.

Before Friedrich could tell them how adorable that was, the doors to the room burst open and in strode the smallest girl Airi had ever seen. She felt bad for confusing Maria for a child, but this was a joke.

The girl was about four feet tall with a thick bob of blonde hair, and an air of superiority about her. When she entered the room, she sent the message that she owned the place, and by extension everything and everyone in it. Every step she took (which was a lot, considering her height) towards her seat was made in complete confidence of herself.

"Hello, Katyusha," Friedrich smiled.

' _This is Katyusha?!_ ' Airi thought.

Katyusha climbed onto her seat opposite the three girls and crossed her arms with a smile brimming with confidence.

"Hello, fellow commander Friedrich! Katyusha welcomes you and offers you her hospitality. Has Nonna already seen you?"

' _Are those fangs?_ '

"Indeed she has," said Friedrich, trying to contain herself, finding the whole thing rather amusing. "These are my friends, Airi and Akisa."

"Katyusha also welcomes you to Pravda. A comrade of Friedrich's is a comrade of Katyusha's!" Katyusha beamed a bright smile. "So, Friedrich, you wanted to discuss Tankery?"

"Indeed, miss Katyusha. I thought it might be best to get to know my fellow commanders in the sport. I'm fairly new to Tankery myself, so I decided-"

"Oh, Friedrich, enough of the drivel!" Katyusha interrupted, waving her hand up and down at the wrist, "You sound like a Nishizumi!"

Friedrich was a little taken aback. Was that a compliment?

"Katyusha wants to know what Friedrich thinks of her tanks!" said Katyusha with a big grin and wide open arms. "You have been watching the tournament, haven't you?"

It was around this time that Nonna came back with a tray of the ordered beverages, along with a glass of juice for Katyusha.

"Umm..." Friedrich stuttered, "I..."

"I thought your battle against Bonple was quite impressive," said Akisa. "Your IS-2 displayed some excellent shooting."

"Of course it did!" said Katyusha, "Nonna is an expert gunner!" she said, looking up at her co-commander, whom had returned to her side after laying out the drinks. Katyusha took the glass with both hands and closed her eyes as she took a gulp to enjoy her drink.

Akisa took a gentle sip of her mors.

"Спасибо, Nonna, it's delicious."

Katyusha opened her eyes and set the glass down. "Speak Japanese, dammit!"

"Katyusha has difficulty understanding Russian," Nonna added, "The language doesn't agree with her."

"You don't have to go telling them that!" said Katyusha, shaking her fist at her.

"I apologise for my lack of consideration, miss Katyusha," said Akisa. "Concerning the match, though, I must ask, was the KV-2 really such a wise choice for a ten tank line-up?" Akisa asked.

"How dare you question Katyusha's choices!" Katyusha squawked, jabbing a finger at Akisa.

Akisa blinked, unsure whether to be frightened or amused. It didn't help that Nonna was hiding her small smile behind her fingers.

"KV-tan is a wonderful machine that absolutely-" she stopped as Nonna placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Katyusha misunderstands her intentions," said Nonna, somewhat sweeter than when she spoke to the girls earlier, "She was simply concerned that Pravda might not have been as strong as it could for its debut in the tournament."

"Hmmph," Katyusha huffed, wrapping both hands around her glass again, "Katyusha supposes she could reconsider next time," she took a sip of juice.

"But didn't you already decide you were going to take the KV-2 into the next match?" asked Nonna.

"I meant the next time we're limited to just 10 tanks!" Katyusha growled at her sub-commander. "Speaking of the tournament, though. Friedrich, why did Roulette Academy not enter?"

"We only have three tanks," Friedrich chuckled. "We couldn't have possibly hoped to get anywhere with just those."

"That doesn't look like it stopped some people from entering the tournament, though," said Katyusha.

"Are you talking about Ooarai?" asked Airi.

"Pah! Yes I am! Just who do they think they are entering a Tankery tournament with just five tanks to show for themselves?"

"They seem to have done pretty well so far," said Airi, "Actually, aren't you meant to be fighting them next?"

"Eurgh. Not you too. I've already had the commander of Gloriana in here warning me about them."

"You're not afraid of them, then?" asked Friedrich, coffee in hand.

"Of course not! Even if a Nishizumi is is charge of them, it's the outcast! There's no way they could defeat Pravda!"

"Is that so?" asked Airi, and she shared a knowing glance with Friedrich.

Katyusha flashed daggers at her. "You doubt Pravda's ability in Tankery?"

"Not at all, miss Katyusha," said Friedrich, "We're just wondering how much _you_ believe in Pravda's ability."

Even Nonna raised an eyebrow.

"Pravda is the best school in the High School League of Senshadou!" Katyusha boasted, "We already have the 62nd tournament championship to our name, and with Katyusha leading the charge for the 63rd there is now way we could lose!"

"Ah, you see miss Katyusha, we're from Las Vegas," Friedrich half lied, "And in Vegas, when someone makes a claim like that, they tend to back it up with a bet."

"A bet?" Katyusha asked.

Airi kind of got lost in the moment, seeing an opportunity. She leant forward and placed both hands on the table.

"We're willing to bet a tank in exchange for yours based on the results of the match," she said, and Friedrich and Akisa darted a look at her.

Katyusha cocked an eyebrow at her. "Why would Katyusha take up an offer like that?"

"Because if you're so sure in Pravda's ability, there's no reason for you to refuse," Airi smiled.

Katyusha pouted in thought for a moment, and then crossed her arms, looked to the side with her eyes closed and said, "No, Katyusha has nothing to prove."

Airi's shoulders sagged as she watched her hopes and dream crushed in front of her by this child.

" _That is such a shame_ ," Akisa said in Russian, taking another sip of her mors. " _We came here quite hopeful_."

Everyone looked at her, most in confusion.

" _With only three tanks, Roulette must be quite desperate_?" Nonna suggested.

"Ey? What are you two saying?" Katyusha demanded.

" _Yes, we are. My girlfriend was hoping to be able to participate and this is her one chance to get her own tank. We were afraid Katyusha would refuse us_."

"Speak Japanese, dammit! Nonna, what is she saying?"

"Miss Akisa was simply expressing her gratitude for the hospitality Katyusha is providing her," Nonna replied.

"She was?"

"Yes, she was saying how her respect for Katyusha is deeper than Lake Baikal."

"Hmm, are you sure?"

" _Katyusha really does struggle, doesn't she?_ " Akisa continued. " _It's quite cute._ "

" _She's always like this. A day is never dull as her co-commander._ "

" _Doesn't it ever get tiring?_ "

" _Never, Katyusha is a joy to be around and I care deeply for her_."

"Nonna! What are you two saying?"

"We were simply comparing our desires to serve Katyusha. Miss Akisa says she would want to serve her as long as Mother Volga, but I expressed my loyalty is as grand as the Caucasus Mountains."

"Hmm, those two are pretty close..." said Katyusha.

" _She has no idea what either of those geographical points are_ ," Nonna added.

"Katyusha has decided to reconsider Friedrich's offer. Katyusha is willing to make a bet."

"Wonderful!" said Friedrich, "Thank you, miss Katyusha!"

"Katyusha bets that Pravda will be able to defeat Ooarai in the upcoming match."

"And what will you bet?" asked Friedrich.

"Katyusha bets her SU-76I. What does Friedrich bet?"

"Our Nahuel," said Friedrich, of course not wanting to risk losing any of them but figured losing the Nahuel would mean only four people would lose out on Tankery, as it had one of the smaller crews.

"It is a deal," Katyusha grinned, bearing her fangs.

And after more small tank, the girls of Roulette Academy left, with Akisa of course giving her unending thanks to Nonna and all that she had done for the future of Roulette.

Of course, like Katyusha, Nonna had the utmost of confidence for Pravda's chances in the next match.

* * *

And in the common room of one of the dormitories, gathered around the big TV, the Roulette Tankery club watched the live broadcast of the Ooarai vs Pravda match. It had been a rollercoaster of excitement (of both the good and bad variety). Friedrich was sure that Ooarai were finished once they were cornered into that church. Airi tried to maintain false hope.

But against the odds, and with a StuG III buried in the snow, Ooarai pulled through.

"Ooarai take the match!"

"YEEAAAH!" Airi threw her fists into the air and tackled Akisa with a hug who was sitting next to her.

The rest of the club joined in with the cheers. While they were invested in Ooarai winning so they could get their tank, it was nice to see the underdogs win a professional match against the odds.

It subconsciously gave them all hope for their own chances.

* * *

" _I'll see you tomorrow, Akisa-chan_ "

"Goodnight, Airi," said Akisa before hanging up the phone, though not before she heard Airi give one last excited giggle.

The two were just on the phone to talk about going to see the new tank tomorrow morning when it arrived.

From the dining table, finishing a bento box for her dinner, was her sister Yui.

" _Can't she go five minutes without talking to you?_ " she asked, speaking fluent Russian, " _You only just saw each other._ "

Akisa was unfazed by her sister's switch in language and played along. " _It's how she shows she cares._ "

" _I just think seeing too much of each other isn't good for the relationship._ "

" _Of course, that must be why you and I hate each other,_ " Akisa said sarcastically.

" _That's different,_ " Yui sighed. " _I like Airi, I just think she's being a bit... needy._ "

" _Needy?_ " Akisa scoffed, " _You don't know her very well, then._ "

"Huh?"

" _Yeah, sure, when she's around me she's a bit of a suck up, because she loves me. But you've only ever seen her around me. She's really good at what she puts her mind to._ "

" _Like clubbing?_ "

" _No. Like Tankery,_ " and then Akisa snapped her fingers, " _Tell you what, sis, come join Tankery with us._ "

"Seriously?"

" _Yeah, we need a couple more crew members. I know you secretly don't like Airi-_ " Yui opened her mouth to protest but Akisa continued. " _Don't deny it. I know you, sis. You see her as too much of a wildcard, and I know how much you like things to be calm, organised, and rational, things of which she is not. But come do Tankery with us, put all of that attitude to good use as the commander, and you'll start to see Airi in a better light._ "

Yui thought about it for a moment.

"Tch," she tutted, and returned back to Japanese, "Fine."

* * *

"Oh my, it's beautiful!" Airi's eyes were gleaming, her hands pressed against her cheeks as she looked at the new SU-76I taking up a spot in the garage. In reality, the tank was quite ugly. It had fallen into a state of disrepair from Pravda neglecting it, but Airi's perception was tainted by her sense of accomplishment of having earned it.

"I must say, it's quite an odd shape," said Yui, crossing her arms, admiring the flat pyramid superstructure.

"It's quite a stubby looking thing, isn't it?" said Akisa.

"Stubby or not..." said Friedrich, approaching the trio, "It's still a welcome asset to the team."

Airi gasped at Friedrich's approach. "Guys, this is Friedrich!" she said to Akisa and Yui.

"Hello, Ms. Friedrich," Akisa bowed.

"A pleasure," Yui offered a handshake, which Friedrich took.

"So, is this your crew?" Friedrich asked Airi.

"Um... yes, I'm just missing a driver. I know who I want it to be though!"

Friedrich pulled out a small pocket notebook she kept on her for jotting down notes and things to remember to do. Flicking through the pages she asked, "Would her name happen to be... Maria..." she found the page she wanted and read off, "Schmitt?"

"Maria what?" Airi asked, "Sssu, mu, ch-chit?"

"Schmitt," Maria said expertly, appearing from behind the SU and skipping over, her pigtails swinging from side to side.

"Maria!" Airi exclaimed.

Maria quickly stopped as she realised how many people there were, suddenly feeling a little shy. "Hi, everyone..." she said with a smile.

"So what makes you qualified to be the driver?" Yui asked with smile and a hand on her hip, receiving a nudge and a glare from her sister at the slightly forward question.

"The SU has a Panzer III hull," Maria answered. "I drove a Panzer III when I went to Kuromorimine last year."

"Maria's already got a full year's of experience driving a tank," Friedrich chipped in. "Meanwhile, our Tankery club has only been going for about two months."

"Fair enough," Yui shrugged.

"Alright!" Friedrich clapped her hands together. "The others will be here soon! Who's ready to practice some Tankery?"

"YOU BETCHA!" Airi threw both her fists into the air.

* * *

 **(20/Sep/17) It was pointed out to me that Friedrich being half German would have no problem pronouncing Maria's name, so I changed it to Airi. It was such an obvious mistake and I feel silly for making it.**


	3. Three of Diamonds

**Chapter 3: Three of Diamonds**

* * *

Roulette Academy eventually became a fairly successful player in the High School Tankery League after that. The addition of a fourth tank to the team and the inspiration granted to them by Ooarai made them perform all the harder. They moved on from 2v2 skirmish matches to full on fights against small schools that only usually fielded Tankathlon teams.

Viggen and Gregor Highschool were the first to be added to the list of the defeated. The respectively themed Swedish and Czechoslovakian schools struggled against the coordinated might of the M6 and new SU-76I crews, with the Chaffee providing reconnaissance with their speed.

Friedrich started keeping a physical list in her office of the defeated schools, and the dream was to eventually see the Big Three names on there, furthermore with Ooarai's at the top. An ambitious dream that a future commander may have to fulfil, but Friedrich was certainly going to give that commander a good head start, as she managed to add Viking Fisheries, Koala and Count Highschool to the list. They lost the first time to the latter because the enemy showed up with a surprising number of Romanian tank destroyers that she wasn't prepared for.

Their success got them noticed by their unofficial sponsor, who started to "find" more tanks for them to add to their roster.

* * *

The commander of one such new crew was currently enjoying a spot of reading. She was lounging in her special reading spot in her dorm room of the unthemed complex. Hijiri's spot was an expensive bean bag with a low, small coffee table just beside it to rest a cup of green tea and a book on.

Hijiri was reading a history book on the North African Campaign, partially out of interest, partially because she had chosen to write a paper on it for school; but mostly it was to see if she could steal a few tactics. The long conflict saw the genius minds of Montgomery and Rommel trying to out-do each other, so she figured it was a gold mine for tank strategies. The only thing she wasn't liking about it so far was that it didn't feature any late-WW2 British tanks, which were her favourite.

Hijiri was a rather colourful girl with twin ponytails that had a gradient of sky blue on her scalp to navy blue at her tail ends. The sky blue matched her eyes. Her hair was long enough to reach her hips when she stood up. When she sat down in her spot, she liked to spread the ends of the tails over the bean bag; she took pride in the length of her hair.

On her little coffee table, her phone buzzed. She picked it up and saw it was a notification from the Roulette Ship app. Some school ships had taken to making apps to keep the community connected, they had live updates for the ships destination, weather forecasts and energy graphs. Of course, the Roulette app featured a plethora of casino and gambling games that connected to the casinos on the Strip; some of the students had tabs in their favourite casinos that were like second bank accounts.

Hijiri tried to keep out of the Blackjack, slots and Roulette games, but she liked to dabble in a good bet. And a smile grew across her face as she saw the notification appear on her screen.

 _Congratulations! You won a bet! 1000 yen added to your tab_

And very shortly afterwards, she got a text message from Sakura from the Chaffee crew,

 _You were right honey! I just saw Allison and Fiona on a date, they're totally hooking up. Did you get your pot?_

Hijiri typed out a response.

 _Sure did! Which couple should I correctly guess this time? ;-)_

It was only a half-joke.

* * *

The four themed dorms took inspiration from existing schools, and much like how the school ships had bastardised cultures of the countries they attempted to ape, the school dorms had bastardised atmospheres of the school ships they masqueraded.

Maginot Maginot was one such dorm. It was visually inspired by the Paris Paris hotel in real Las Vegas, complete with an Eiffel tower out the front, albeit obviously smaller; and it took its theme from the French Maginot school. It featured an art gallery, which was half filled with replicas while the other half was filled with the works of Roulette's very own top performing art students; as well as a series of restaurants (all French themed, of course) and a few relaxing bars. The dorm was the second smallest, and a lot of it was reserved as a hotel, so as a consequence the dorm rooms were studio apartments much like those of the unthemed dorm.

Maginot Maginot was were the "artsy" students tended to end up, though a few on normal education programme would sometimes request to live there.

One such case was Akira. At the moment, she was trying on a series of accessories whilst wearing the Roulette Tankery uniform in front of the mirror, with a smile on her face. Not a beaming smile, but a smile that showed off just how content she was with where she was and what she was doing, the kind of smile that if somebody else had been there she might start humming.

Flowers, clips, bracelets, scarves, belts, snoods, necklaces and even handbags. Anything she had she was trying on. Akira had heard that Friedrich was trying to secure a match with one of the French schools. Akira loved the French, so she wanted to look her best for the match. She wasn't quite sure what it was about them she adored so much, it just seemed to be a little bit of everything to do with the French spirit. Maybe it was the food, that was one of the major reasons she picked Maginot Maginot after all, so she could live above all the restaurants.

Her love of the French didn't go unnoticed, and her friends gave her the nickname 'Orleans' after they heard she had been to both the old and new namesake cities. And her favourite tank was the AMX-13, that didn't help either.

Her phone started singing the instrumental of Dans les Hussards as it received a call. Picking it up, she noticed it was just the person she was thinking of.

"De Brak, honey! How are you?"

" _I am just fine, mon cherie! I did some looking and found a spare Czapka for you!_ "

"Thanks a lot! Do you think you could bring it to school tomorrow?"

" _Not a problem, dear. See you tomorrow!_ "

"Au revoir," Akira joked with a giggle and hung up.

Akira was the only case of Hijiri losing a bet on a gay couple forming. Hijiri had bet Akira would eventually hook up with De Brak, but it wasn't to be. Akira was straight after all, much to her own frustration. She could at least admit De Brak was attractive.

Akira admired herself in the mirror for a moment to see if she liked her image. Her blonde hair was tied into a bun with some hanging loops, a hairstyle she was quite pleased with. Her nails were painted a blue that matched the French flag. She also had a red hair clip in her hair shaped like a playing card diamond, but she wasn't sure if she liked how it went with the blue.

Not that any of this mattered. As the loader, it wasn't like anyone was going to see her.

She heard some hissing coming from her stove and panicked as she realised she left her dinner boiling in a pan with a lid, and now the water was starting to spill out over the sides. She rushed over to save her dinner.

* * *

Bake in the oven for ten minutes until crispy on the outside.

Well, which was it? For ten minutes, or until crispy? What if the cookies didn't go crispy after ten minutes? How was she meant to check? Just by looking? What if her sense of judgement wasn't right? What if her view of "crispy" was different to that of the people who wrote the book? Maybe it was lots of people that wrote it, that would be worse! Then there would be a whole array of contradicting beliefs on what the perfect "crispy" cookie looked like, and she was just another addition to the problem!

Youmi took a breath and considered for about the fifth time if she should just give up and throw out the whole batch. She almost did the first time when she accidentally added three extra grams of flour. Now though, she was too far in to give up now. Hopefully the cookies wouldn't turn out too awful.

Youmi was the radio operator of the Sherman DD, which was ironic considering her poor social skills. She had trouble looking at people in the eye; it was rather odd, like a force was preventing her from looking at them directly, so when she talked to people it would usually be while casting a glance just past them, it made her look like she had two lazy eyes.

But that didn't stop her from being a decent enough radio operator. Hijiri understood her. She knew that if she gave Youmi orders she would repeat them over the order _exactly_ as she was given them, right down to the enunciation.

Youmi pulled the tray of cookies out of the oven once the ten minutes was up. They certainly looked crispy. But what if her friends didn't like crispy cookies?

She grimaced and set the tray down, then knocked the side of her head. She knew she was being silly, but she couldn't help it. Her brain was trying to convince her of all these irrational things.

After letting the cookies cool down, she tried one. They were... alright. Perhaps they crumbled a little too much, they seemed a little more "hard" than "crispy", the gooey inside could easily make a mess, but at least it tasted nice.

She bagged the rest, one for each of her friends, and a second for Sumi.

* * *

Later, at about one o'clock in the morning, the Strip was just as bright, colourful and alive as it always was. The Seven Clovers Casino and Bar was a particular favourite of Azumi's, not a weekend went by without her paying it a visit.

Azumi loved Seven Clovers because it featured one of the largest dance floors on the Strip. It was estimated it could fit about 350 people on it, though Seven Clovers recently put up a notification on the Roulette app that about 420 managed to squeeze on for a mosh pit last weekend. But Azumi had already left by that point, her delinquency had limits.

Tonight the bar was featuring just some good old techno music, just the thing she could dance to.

Azumi had a head of thick black hair, tied into a single braid down her back, which made it heavy and short enough that it wasn't a nuisance when she twirled and threw herself around while dancing. She also grew out her bangs and hair sprayed them to keep them stiff to frame her face.

While tearing up the dance floor with some girl friends, they laughed as a boy started jigging his way over. She liked how casual he was being about it, she was sick of men that tried too hard to be smooth.

As the beat dropped into some really low tones, the boy did a Matrix lean backwards to coincide with the low bass. Azumi saw this as a challenge and copied him, the two expertly keeping themselves suspended on just the tips of their shoes.

They snapped back up to a stand at the same time, dancing in front of each other. The boy shuffled up his shoulders against her, a big smile on his face. Azumi returned the dance move. She was having some good fun.

And as the song reached its ending crescendo and stopped, the two settled to a stand to catch their breath, giving each other a respective nod for the other's skill.

And then, just as he was turning to leave, he reached over and gave her a slap just behind the waist.

Azumi's smile melted into a look of "did you just...?"

The next thing the kid knew, as he was just taking his first step to leave, he was on the floor after being knocked flat from a clean right hook to the jaw.

Cracking her knuckles, Azumi nodded to her friends and they left the dance floor. The boy was swallowed by the rest of the dancing patrons; nobody had noticed the fight since the next song was starting.

* * *

Later in the evening, over in the tank garages, a few of the engineers were working late into the night to get some needed repairs done after a recent practice skirmish match. Sumi was the driver and maintainer of her crew's Sherman DD. She loved her precious "floaty Sherman" tank for how ridiculous it looked.

The match had caused a tear in the flotation screen, amongst other faults, but to Sumi, replacing the screen - or "shower curtain" as Azumi called it - was of utmost importance. Though admittedly, the damage was her fault.

"Get out of the damn way!" he had shouted at the start of a match as the teams set off, directed at the tank in front of them.

"Sumi, that's the Chaffee," Hijiri laughed, "They're the scouts, they need to be in front."

"If they're in a Chaffee then they could at least move a little _faster_!" Sumi drove the pedal to the ground and pushed both the tread levers forward.

"Sumi, no, stop!" Hijiri tried to tell her, but Sumi rammed straight into the back of the Chaffee in an attempt to push it along.

" _Earth to Three Diamonds!_ " Sakura, the commander of the Chaffee, transmission over the radio, " _You're kind of mounting us!_ "

"Sumi, for God's sake, pull back!" Hijiri ordered, ducking her head into the tank to scream the order at the driver.

"Commander, the Chaffee's gun is pointing this way!" Azumi relayed, spying through the gunner's optics.

Hijiri transmission "Five Hearts, what are you doing?!"

What came through was Fiona, the Chaffee's radio operator, trying to give an answer while Sakura could be heard arguing with the gunner in the background, " _F-Five Hearts to Three Diamonds; we're k-kind of in a pickle right now as-_ " but what she said afterwards was never heard as the Chaffee fired straight into the Sherman DD. The round ricocheted off, and now Azumi, desperately trying to keep her composure, had run out of temper.

"Eat sh-!"

 _BANG_

Five minutes into the match, the Chaffee was knocked out.

The flag tank.

The other team won.

"Hmph, should've been at the back anyway," Sumi huffed at the memory, pouring some water from a jerry can onto her hands to wipe off the dust and grime from attaching the new screen to the floaty Sherman.

* * *

As the bell rang to signal lunch time at Roulette Academy, the five girls met up in their usual spot at their usual table in the cafeteria. Hijiri was the first to arrive, followed by Akira.

"Hijiri, honey!" said Akira, sitting opposite her commander with tray in hand. "How was your weekend?"

"Hi, Akira! My weekend was just fine!"

The girls were dressed in the Roulette Academy uniform, which was a white buttoned shirt with a grey blazer, grey skirt and black bowtie.

"'sup, bitches?" Azumi sat down next to them.

"A good morning to you too, Azumi," Hijiri giggled.

Azumi snapped her fingers. "Hijiri, I need a favour to ask. Could you help me study for the test tomorrow?"

"I don't suppose you did any studying over the weekend?" she asked playfully.

"You know I can't study by myself."

Hijiri sighed exaggeratively, but said with a smile, "Fine, since it's you asking."

"Cheers, I owe you one."

"Don't you owe her five, now?" Akira asked, cocking her head.

"Shh," Azumi placed a finger to Akira's lips, "Quiet, Orleans."

"Well, well, if it isn't Sumi!" said Hijiri, watching the driver make her way over then slouching down in a seat next to Azumi. She looked worse for wear, like she hadn't slept.

"You look like you and Youmi were up all night," Azumi smirked.

Sumi punched her in the arm. Well, it was more of a brush of her fist. "The Sherman took a while to fix," she mumbled.

"It'd be faster if you let someone else help you," said Hijiri.

"Nobody is touching my precious floaty Sherman!" Sumi waved a finger in the air.

"Oh hey, it's Youmi!" said Akira, and Sumi was immediately wide awake, her eyes shooting open while she sat up straight.

Youmi was holding a plastic of cookies. She stood next to the seat Sumi was sitting in and leant down and gave her kiss.

"How long have you two been together for now?" asked Akira.

"Four months," Hijiri answered for them.

"How do you remember that?" Azumi asked.

"They were the first couple I bet on," Hijiri stuck out her tongue. "I'll be honest, I remember more the message I got on my phone to tell me about the pot I won."

"I'll never forget Sumi's face when she told us they were together," Akira giggled.

"Oh," Sumi exclaimed sarcastically, wrapping an arm around her girlfriend's waist, "You mean that time I sat my closest friends down to tell them about this really important moment in my life, and then one of them goes 'Oh yeah, I know, I won two grand off it'?"

"Yeah that was it!" Akira snickered.

"It was funny, Sumi," said Azumi, "You were _fuming_."

"Pfft," Sumi waved her hand, "Joke's on you guys, I'm the one that got Youmi."

"Didn't she ask _you_ out?" Hijiri asked, resting her chin on her hand, elbow propped on the table.

"W-well... yeah... but I was... going to ask her out anyway..."

Even Youmi peered at her to raise a suspicious eyebrow.

"Weren't you two friends for years?" asked Hijiri, looking rather smug with her smile with her chin resting on her hand. "You were taking your sweet time."

Sumi stuttered for an answer.

Youmi had the smallest smile on her face the whole time, she liked watching her girlfriend getting teased, she always had to have the last word.

"Hey, Youmi," Sumi looked up at her to change the subject, "How you doing today?"

"Um... I... I made cookies for everyone," she said timidly, holding up the bag.

"Oh, how sweet of you!" said Akira.

"There's one for everyone," said Youmi.

"Um... Youmi..." said Azumi with a slight grimace of guilt, "Sorry, but I don't really like cookies."

Youmi looked like she had just seen her dog die. "Oh..."

Hijiri kicked Azumi under the table. Akira flashed daggers at her.

"I'm sure they're lovely cookies!" Azumi waved her hands, "I'm just not a fan! I wouldn't want to tell you I liked them when I didn't..."

"No, that makes sense," Youmi nodded, "You don't want to lie to me. I respect that. I'm sorry I couldn't give you anything."

"Don't worry about it!" said Azumi, "I don't even know what you feel like you need to give me something for."

"Well... I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for being my friend... so I made cookies for everyone."

"Oh, honey!" said Akira, her hand to her heart.

Sumi rubbed circles into her girlfriend's back with a smile.

"Why don't you have Azumi's, sweetie?" she asked.

"Y-yeah," Azumi nodded, "I would like it if you had mine."

"Alright," Youmi agreed.

Youmi handed out the cookies, keeping the last two - the second one for Sumi and the one meant for Azumi - wrapped up in the bag. She didn't realise that she was gripping the ends of her blazer with her other hand, awaiting the criticisms of her baking.

She started to regret giving them the cookies. Too crispy, the inside too messy. She should've started again. She tried to do this nice thing for them, got them excited for some cookies and now she was going to subject them to-

"Oh wow, these are delicious!" said Akira.

Youmi's eyes lit up. "You think so?"

"Yeah, these are great!" said Hijiri.

"You don't think they're too hard?"

"No, I don't think so," said Akira.

"Is the chocolate inside nice?"

"Oh yes!" said Hijiri, "It's so sweet!"

"You did a good job, sweetie," said Sumi, "These are nice cookies."

Youmi was overcome with relief.

"Are you sure you don't want one, Azumi?" asked Hijiri.

"I'm sure. I wish I could, but I feel sick when I eat too much chocolate at once."

"That sucks," said Sumi.

"S-so, um... what does everyone want to do today?" Youmi asked.

"Study," Azumi answered.

"Study session at my place tonight?" Sumi asked.

"That sounds like fun!" said Akira.

"Yeah, I'll go if Hijiri does," said Azumi.

Hijiri gave a thumbs up.

"Youmi?" asked Sumi.

"Yeah, and she'll stay behind all night afterwards," said Azumi, much to Sumi's blushing.

Sumi punched Azumi in the arm again, properly this time.

"Ow!" she cried. "Well, that's a dead arm now."

"Um, yes Sumi, I'd love to come."

"Then it's a date!" said Hijiri with a smile.

* * *

 **Mars' Tips For Making a Cast of Characters**

 **Tip #1**

 **When giving names to your characters, make them discernibly different. Here we have an Azumi, a Youmi and a Sumi. I was the one with the cheat sheet and even I had difficulty telling these three apart. This works for humorous purposes if the characters are meant to be a duo/trio, but I'd still limit it to just two people.**

 **Tip #1.5**

 **When picking a name for a character, I like to give their name a meaning, even if its really obscure to the poit I myself will forget it. You can make names rather distinguishable this way.**

 **Tip #2**

 **Physical descriptions are important so you can picture the character in your head. Give the character something more than just a hairstyle and colour (though Youmi is a good example of telling her apart by hairstyle because of her unique colours). Height also doesn't work, because just about anyone could be described as tall, mid height or short.**

 **Things like complexion, skin colour, beauty spots, hair thickness, breast size, accessories (The creator of the M6 crew knew what he was doing on this one. Even a pair of glasses makes the character different), piercings and clothes (And not just the colour of their shirt. Give your character a very distinguishable costume. Look at Danganronpa 1 for good examples on telling characters apart just by clothing) should be used to make the character stand our in the reader's mind. In animation this isn't as important because the characters can be seen, so a picture doesn't need to be painted.**

 **For example: Imagine a high-school student in a white/green sailor uniform with shoulder length copper hair that has an almost permanent expression of unsuredness.**

 **Did you guess I was trying to describe Miho? You might've, but you can see my point on how that description could've fitted just about anyone.**

 **This is an important point for me to stress because I'm only three chapters in and I'm starting to run out of ways I can describe a character when I've got next to nothing to go on besides their hair style. Some of these descriptions have actually been personal interpretations.**


	4. Red Joker

**Chapter 4: Red Joker**

* * *

"That should be about done!" the engineer poked his head out of the two-piece driver's hatch of the Valiant. He pushed up the welder's mask he was wearing revealing a face pouring with sweat. He slung his arms over the hull and slouched against it, one hand gripping a welding torch. "I'll tell ya something, I never thought I'd get used to doing engineering inside a tank."

"But it turns out you did?" asked Keiko, one of the four girls patiently waiting - actually it was just her that was being patient - for the Valiant's mods to be finished.

"Are you kidding? Hell no! I could never get used to it but at least it was a change of pace compared to the usual line of work. But this hunk of junk's a Valiant! I'm pretty sure I gashed my leg on a flat surface! That job was hell!"

"But all the mods are done, right?" Aika asked, fists and teeth clenched, bouncing up and down at the heels.

"Oh yeah," the engineer said, "All the sharp edges have had foam bolted to them, so there shouldn't be any horrific injuries caused by _those_."

"I dunno," Aika tutted, "I kind of liked the idea of being inside a mechanical monster that would bite you if you weren't crewing it right. It almost seemed like a Saw experiment."

"Well, Friedrich demanded those we filed down," said Keiko, pushing up her glasses.

"Looks like you'll have to get your kicks from elsewhere, Aika," said Chiyo with a nudge.

Aika snapped her fingers with a "dammit."

Aika was the commander of this unfortunate crew. She was picked because of her age. Despite being a first year like the others, she was 18 because of being held back twice. She had brown eyes and short black hair tied back in a ponytail at a fairly high angle, so the hair poked up above her head before falling down.

She was known to be a bit of an extremist with her intentions and ways of thinking. Heck, she was genuinely excited over the idea of being inside the Valiant with all of its sharp edges, because it would've added an extra element of suspense to any matches they partook in.

One could tell of Aika's rather insane nature just by talking to her. It was the eyes. They were always open to their fullest, like she didn't have any eyelids; it was a rarity to see her blink. When Aika looked at you, it was like she was staring through you. And her gaze had one of two states, either constantly darting or completely fixed, like a predator. The shark smile complimented her eyes beautifully.

"So yeah, edges are safe," the engineer started counting on his fingers, "The pedals have had hinges added to them. So if your foot heel ever gets caught underneath it, they won't have to chop your leg off."

"Was that actually an issue with the Valiant?" asked Keiko.

"Hoho yes!" the guy nodded. "There's a gap between the pedal and the wall of the tank, so if you push down with your foot and slide it off, the pedal will retract and trap your heel underneath it. The only way to get it out was to either take the whole tank - or the driver's leg - apart!"

"What about the weight of the levers?" asked Chiyo. "Has that been fixed?"

The engineer sucked through his teeth. "I'm afraid not. The League said that they were willing to allow changes to be made to the tank that ensured the health and safety of the crew without affecting performance for the better. One of the handicaps of the Valiant - one of the _many_ , granted - are the heavy levers. They are part of the design, so we can't change them."

"Seriously?" Chiyo asked. "We're not soldiers though! Look at me! The first driver to ever test it was exhausted after driving it in a _straight line_! How am I supposed to be effective with it."

"Last I checked, that wasn't my problem," the guy said and the girls looked like they had just been slapped in the face. "I just got told to pad out the sharp edges and add hinges to the pedals."

"Wait, that's _all_ you got told to do?" Chiyo asked. "So you haven't increased the pedal height?"

"No, that's staying the way it is."

" _Look at us_!" she fanned a hand out to the others. "We're only four feet tall! I can't reach the pedals! How am I supposed to drive the damn thing?"

"I don't know! Stack some books on it or something!"

* * *

"Humph. I wasn't reading them anyway," Chiyo said to herself as she placed the last schoolbook on the pile on the pedals.

Chiyo was chosen to drive the Valiant simply because everyone else had been given the other positions. She had argued that Ume, the loader, could've taken up driving because of her remarkable strength, but Aika insisted that she wanted reload speed over a more comfortable ride.

Chiyo could be easily spotted by her short height, much like everyone in the Valiant crew, but with a marvel head of black hair to go with it. Chiyo had taken special care all her life to grow out her hair. It was waist length, but had two tails that reached down to just above her ankles.

"I mean, why even bother making changes to the pedals if I can't even reach them in the first place, dumbass!" she shouted at the empty compartment.

Chiyo wasn't exactly in the best of moods.

She sat in the driver's seat to test out her new ride.

"I still can't reach them?!" she hollered. "For f-"

"Hey, Chiyo!"

Chiyo looked up at to see Ume peering in through the driver's hatch with her ever present smile.

Ume was a strange muscle mass of a girl. Just going by appearances, there didn't seem to be anything special about her, but her arms were rippling with muscle. She claimed that that was "real muscle", as "losers" who didn't rep properly bulked out without gaining any more strength. It was basically one of Ume's commandments that five reps of something extremely heavy was far more effective than twenty reps of something lighter.

However the second commandment was "it is never leg day", and so Ume was completely useless at actually carrying anything heavy on her back for too far, nor could she kick a ball. But it didn't matter, so long as she could easily win any arm wrestling contest with all those "fake muscle-builders who can't wipe their asses".

Ume had shoulder length, naturally spiky blonde hair with dark eyes. And due to her rather tomboyish nature and flat chest, this often led Chiyo to calling her...

"Oh, hey dude," Chiyo welcomed her.

Ume's eyes narrowed.

"What's up?" Chiyo asked.

"Keiko told me to get these for you," Ume held up a pair of geta - wooden sandals with an elevated base held up by wooden "teeth" - and Chiyo noticed they were particularly tall ones, probably around six inches.

"She did?"

"Yes, I did," said Keiko, slipping into the commander's cupola and ducking down to peer through the tank.

Keiko was chosen as the gunner because she demanded to be. Aika had actually wanted to be the gunner first because of the power behind it, but Keiko argued that since the gun was arguably the most important and effective feature of the tank, it should perhaps be equipped by somebody that could actually keep their nerve. She was the most sensible person in the group. She was certainly more mature than Aika.

She had nape length copper hair, teal eyes and a pair of glasses to go with them. When she spoke, she did it slowly. Some believed it was because she patronisingly looked down on everyone else, others because she was always thinking carefully about what she was saying.

And she was never seen without a notebook. She was always taking notes, but nobody could every figure out what for. Notes on the most trivial of things.

"I knew that just a stack of books wasn't going to be enough to allow you to reach the pedals, at least not with any margin of comfort or bends in the knees to push them very far. So I inquired with Ume as to if she could provide you with a pair of sandals."

"Catch!" said Ume and dropped the sandals into the hatch. Chiyo raised her hands more as a shielding defence than an attempt to catch them.

She slid them on, and...

"I can reach!"

"Finally!' said Ume, standing up and making her way over to the loader's hatch.

"Alright, bitches!" said Aika, hopping into the cupola with a radio headset over her head. "Freddy's given us the all clear, we can take this bad boy out for a test drive!"

" _This is Two Clubs to Red Joker_ ," Aika heard Friedrich's voice over her headset, " _If I ever catch you calling me Freddy again, I will have you court marshalled. Out._ " it was obviously in jest.

"How did she-?"Aika then realised she was sat on the transmission button wired up to her headset. She grabbed it and held the button down. "Umm... Red Joker to Two Clubs, apologies! out!" she released the button and snickered.

Chiyo started the engine, the low but loud rumble filling the compartment and echoing through the tank hangar.

Aika let out a yawn, and retaliated by drumming the sides of her face, then said, "Everyone good to go?"

Keiko spoke up, peering through the optics trying to adjust the sights. "Just a moment, I'm not-"

"Alright then! Forward!" she finished with a thrusting finger point.

Chiyo pushed the throttle as much as she could and the tank lurched forward. She rolled the vehicle out of the hangar and toward the tank grounds nearby. Friedrich's M6 joined them in the cruise.

"What are we doing first, commander?" Chiyo asked over the radio.

"Freddy wants to start by doing some driving around the field to get used to the ride, so go nuts Chiyo!"

"Oh no..." said Keiko.

"You got it!"

Chiyo pulled off from the M6/Valiant convoy, and for the next ten minutes she proceeded to yank and shove the levers to jerk the tank around, rocking the crew inside and kicking up buckets of mud from the tracks. She was trying to get a feel for how severe the levers turned the tank the further back she pulled them... and because she wanted to rock the crew inside.

"Chiyo!" Keiko cried, "For goodness' sake, could you please-!"

"Keep going, Chiyo!" Aika urged, "This is fun!" a sudden jolt caused her to knock her head against the foam plated cupola edges. "Phew! Glad that's there!"

But Chiyo was really pushing herself. Every time she wanted to move a lever, she had to two hand it to put all her body weight into it to get it to move. So she had her head looking down into the compartment to see what see what she was doing.

So she didn't see the tree.

"BRACE!" Aika hollered, and everyone grabbed onto what they could just in time before the tank stopped sharply as it collided with the trunk. Of course, the tank kept going, taking the tree down with it, but it still caused a sudden plummet in speed.

Chiyo hit the brakes, and now the tank was mounting the fallen tree.

"Tch," Chiyo tutted. "I knew that would happen!" she grabbed the radio button and sent out a transmission, "I'm telling you Aika, I will not be able to deal with this dumb driving system!"

"Then you're just going to have to drive in as straight a line as possible," said Aika.

"That's a terrible idea," said Keiko.

"But if we can't mod it, it's the only idea," Chiyo sulked.

" _Two Clubs to Red Joker. Don't worry Chiyo, you'll get the hang of it!_ "

* * *

Friedrich moved them onto stationary gun exercises whilst Chiyo gave her arms a rest.

" _For this exercise, Red Joker, I want you to shoot the target as much as you can within two and a half minutes. It will be the responsibility of the crew to figure out the distance. Remember that groupings are more important than rate of fire._ "

"They are?" Aika sulked to her crew, "Well that sucks."

"Of course," said Keiko pushing her glasses up her nose, "The speed of which you can send shells down the battlefield is completely irrelevant if they do not hit anything. The only instance in which that would be important would be suppressive fire, but an exercise like that would probably be conducted in a much larger team-"

Aika yawned and made no attempts to hide it.

"So groupings are more important because one shot that hits its target can make all the difference as opposed to five shots that don't. In an ideal scenario a gunner should only have to shoot once to eliminate its target. Friedrich is correct. She is our commander for a reason. Furthermore-"

" _You may begin the exercise_."

Keiko shut up and glued her face to the optics. Ume cracked her knuckles. Quite far down range, Friedrich had set up a large target. Keiko lined up the crosshair in the very centre and fired. The shell was completely off.

 _But I expected it to be_ , she thought to herself. She figured Friedrich would allow a single missed shot for her to adjust her optics for the range.

"Up!" Ume called.

Keiko pulled away to look down at her notes on her lap. Exhaustive drawings and scribbles on the equations for gravity, angles, wind conditions (usually irrelevant). She put her eye back and figured out that the rings around the target were all six inches apart from each other. The target would be approximately three feet across, in that case.

"Are you going to shoot at some point?" Aika asked.

"Do not rush me!" Keiko hissed.

Keiko figured that aiming for the bullseye was a red herring. Groupings were important, not points. She adjusted her reticule up slightly, allowing some extra room for drop. Even if she only ever hit the outer ring, it didn't matter so long as every shell she fired hit the same spot.

Next, she decided to-

Keiko almost had a heart attack from the sudden and unexpected clatter as something big and hard struck the side of the Valiant, causing it to rock slightly on its treads.

"Jesus Christ! What was that!" Aika asked, breathing heavily from the shock.

There was a pop and a _shwift_ they heard from the hull outside. Aika opened the cupola and poked her head out to see a white flag blowing in the breeze near her cupola.

Aika grabbed the transmission button. "Friedrich, what just happened?"

" _I got bored._ "

"B-but, Commander..." Keiko spoke into the headset on her own head, "I was being careful! I needed to line up my shot to-"

" _Speed isn't everything when shooting, but that doesn't mean you can disregard it entirely. If that were a real target, do you think they would sit there patiently waiting for you to line up a perfect shot?_ "

Keiko stared blankly down at her lap. She closed her eyes tight, grit her teeth and sent out a transmission.

"N-no, Commander... no I do not."

" _Don't worry Keiko. It's a tough job and you'll become a natural at it eventually. And Aika!_ "

"Aye, mein Friedrich?" she snickered.

" _Give Keiko a hand next time. I said it was the crews' responsibility to figure out distance, not just the gunner's. You've got binoculars in your basket for a reason._ "

"I have binoculars?!" Aika ducked back down into the cupola to look around for them. Sure enough, there were a pair of binoculars in a pocket of the tank hidden behind the tank instruction booklet. That must've been why she didn't dare to touch that spot with a ten-foot pole.

" _Would you girls like to try that exercise again?_ " concerned that she might have hurt their feelings, Friedrich felt the need to ask.

The three girls looked between each other. Keiko looked miserable with her terrible performance. Ume reached over and placed her hand on Keiko's shoulder.

"You're not gonna give up are ya?" she said with a grin and fire in her eyes.

Keiko looked at Ume.

"You know what you need?" Aika asked, raising a hand like a karate chop.

"No, Aika, I do not need a "good old slap across the face."" Keiko chuckled.

"Dammit!" Aika balled her hand into a fist.

Keiko sent out a transmission. "Yes, Commander. We'd like to try the exercise again."

* * *

Whilst Keiko was still a little slow lining up her first shot, she was pleased to see she actually shot it. Aika provided... rather useless information as she didn't know what she was meant to be looking out for. Friedrich also noticed that time in-between shots was also pretty slow, like Keiko was lining it up all over again.

Friedrich was starting to get a little frustrated.

"I mean, what's the problem?" she vented amongst her crew in the M6. "How hard can it be? Aim the gun, shoot the gun. t's not like the turret does a one eighty when you pull the trigger!"

"Friedrich, darling," said Nelson, a mug of tea in hand. "Remember, we were rubbish one day."

"Yes, I know, I'm not expecting them to suddenly be an amazing shot, they're just... not getting it."

"Friedrich," said Custer, trying to pull her hat over her eyes as a sort of subconscious nervous habit, feeling awkward speaking back at her commander, "Do you remember when you came to the jazz club that one time?"

"The only time," Friedrich answered.

"Yeah. You tried playing the piano, but you just... didn't get it."

"I... I do remember that."

"This is the same. They might not be good, and they might not even have the mind for it. It's really easy for you to criticise them and say it's easy, because to you it is. To you it's second nature."

Friedrich considered what Custer was telling her.

"So maybe they'll never get it, but they're trying. At least they're trying."

Friedrich leaned back and ran a hand down her face. Truth be told, she was frustrated because she was hoping for immediate results from the headache she had to go through of arguing back and forth with the League on whether or not they could mod the tank.

" _Friedrich..._ " a transmission came through from Aika, " _We'd like to try again_."

Custer looked back from the radio to Friedrich, waiting for a response.

Friedrich gave a light sigh. "One more go," she said hesitantly.

"Affirmative, Red Joker, one more attempt," said Custer, guessing that Friedrich didn't want to make the transmission herself.

" _Awesome! Thanks, Friedrich, you're the best!_ "

Friedrich huffed. "No I'm not," she whispered to herself.

* * *

 **Omake:**

"Thank you so much for choosing us as the next crew to take on board, Friedrich," said Keiko, the other three standing beside her. She knew spots were tight in the Tankery club and it was genuinely an honour for Friedrich to have picked them when the club acquired a new tank.

"No worries, Keiko," Friedrich smiled, a huge object hidden underneath a white cloth beside her.

"So, what is it?" asked Aika, gripping her hands into fists, "Is it a Cromwell?"

"Or perhaps a Centurion!" Chiyo's eyes sparkled.

"A Centurion would be nice," Keiko nodded.

"Or an AMC 35," Ume pumped her fists.

"Alright, girls," said Friedrich with a giggle, "I know you're all excited to start Tankery..."

She stepped toward the cloth and gripped it with both hands. The other four watched unblinking as the anticipation of seeing their new tank ate them alive from the inside. Even Keiko couldn't help mustering a small smile.

"...so here's your new tank!"

Friedrich wrenched the cloth away, revealing the vehicle underneath.

It was looked upon with expressions of confusion, followed by disbelief, and finally... realisation.

* * *

 **Omake inspired by a pic from this album:** **/a/RU5fh**

 **Mars' Tips for Making a cast of Characters**

 **Tip #3**

 **The cheater's guide to making a character is to give them a strength, a flaw and a quirk.**

 **While there's obviously a lot more to it than that, to make the foundation of a well rounded character, those are the only three starting points you need.**

 **The character needs a strength to be likeable. Everybody has something they're good at. Everybody. Without a strength they have no purpose to the plot.**

 **Flaws are quite often neglected in amateur writers.** **"My character has no flaws, they're perfect." Bullshit. Nobody is perfect. A flaw in a character presets them as more human, and often paves the way for development.**

 **I experimented in this chapter by providing Friedrich with a flaw I believe my interpretation of her would have: a lack of understanding of the ignorance in fields where she is knowledgeable. Regardless of whether or not I executed well, I think it still strengthened the character as it gave an insight into someone a little more human. Simply because she's flawed.**

 **And quirks make a character memorable and make them different. There's only so many combinations of strengths and flaws you can put together before the characters become samey.**

 **I'll prove this formula works by filtering down some of the characters of GuP to this very basic level.**

 **Miho - Tactical genius, lacks self confidence, has an obsession for Boko bears.**

 **Yukari - Always does the job the best she can, socially awkward,** **excitable.**

 **Anzu - Intelligent, acts before thinking, loves sweet potato.**

 **Saori - Cares for her friends like a mother, naive, hopeless romantic.**

 **Katyusha - Loyal, overconfident, Napolean complex.**

 **Hana - Umm...something?, umm... head in the clouds? Maybe?, umm... eats a lot of food? ...y'know, because of those two frames in the show where she had a big bowl of rice...?**

 **So you see, this formula does work. And from this I can make the argument that Hana is kind of a bland character. No seriously, this is an opinion of mine and I'm sticking to it.**


	5. We're Fighting Our Cousins! I

**Chapter 5: We're Fighting Our Cousins!** **I**

* * *

Friedrich was sat at home, in her apartment at her desk, a book open in front of her and her laptop providing the only light in the room. It was one o'clock in the morning, but she couldn't go to bed just yet. She had fallen behind on her schoolwork and needed to catch up. Of course, it was difficult to work when you were being distracted by the tank match you were watching.

As well as studying for an upcoming exam, Friedrich was analysing the battle strategies of a particular school. Friedrich wasn't going to skimp on the research on this. Up until now, they had been fighting smaller schools with tiny budgets that were more used to fielding Tankathlon teams than Tankery teams.

But now, they were starting to get their feet wet with the big players.

Roulette Academy were going to have a match with Anzio Girls' High School.

Friedrich had sent a friendly message to Anchovy, the school's Tankery commander.

" _Ciao, Ms Anchovy. As commander of Roulette Academy's Tankery team, I, Friedrich, wish to challenge you to a friendly bout of tanks. Do you accept?_ "

It had been the same way she'd introduced herself to all the other schools. She figured coming across as playful and not-all-business was the best approach.

" _Fr_ _ä_ _ulein Friedrich!_ " the reply had started; it made Friedrich chuckle, " _I have been watching Roulette's rise to dominance, and I am curious to see it for myself! A friendly match between our schools sounds good to me!_ "

After that, the two continued exchanging messages sorting out the details of the match. Friedrich was surprised by the friendliness of Anchovy. She had assumed all the tournament competing school commanders would be up themselves because of their superiority. Then again, she was basing this off of an encounter she had with Maho Nishizumi once.

Friedrich had spent the evening pouring over footage of Anzio in the tournaments. Their tactics seemed to be a little sporadic, and on the verge of breaking rules, but in interesting ways.

"I mean... I guess there technically isn't anything in the rulebook that says you can't put up cardboard cutouts of tanks..." Friedrich had said to herself.

Once Friedrich had the rough idea of the roster Anzio might bring, it was now her turn to decide on hers. Roulette had about ten tanks at this point, but due to overbooked Tankery zones, the League had to limit the upcoming match to six. Of course, her M6 would be in the team, and... so would one of the Nahuels. Yes, because after a... rather strange request by Mr. Benedict, the owner of the ship, Friedrich was to put that crew in all her lineups.

"I... suppose I could, Mr. Benedict, but this might hinder us in some circumstances..." she had said to him; he was a rather pudgy man in a suit, his face completely cast in shadow. He had come to seek her personally at the tank garages during late night maintenance and the moonlight wasn't quite reaching his face through the skylights.

"Ms. Friedrich..." he had said, in his deep voice that made Friedrich quake in her boots. "You must understand..."

Friedrich swallowed hard.

And then he got on his knees and placed his hands together. "Please, I'm begging you! I need to get those girls out the house! Whatever it takes! I will compensate you, just please, I need them gone!"

"W-well... we do need a new tank..."

And that was how they got their first Sherman DD.

So Friedrich added the Seven of Diamonds Nahuel crew to the roster. The team called it the "Terry" crew to distinguish it from the other Nahuel.

And with the mandatory crews added to the roster, Friedrich then chose the others, the only way a Roulette commander would know how. She took the teams' profile papers, closed her eyes, shuffled the papers almost like a deck of cards, pulled out four at random, and opened her eyes.

The Eight of Spades SU-76I, the Three of Diamonds Sherman DD, the Red Joker Valiant and the Five of Hearts Chaffee.

Friedrich chuckled to herself. "This is going to be an interesting match."

* * *

"Good afternoon, everyone!" Friedrich said as she entered the "war room", as some liked to call it. It was just the tank garages, but it was only the war room when a whiteboard and some folded chairs were brought in.

Everyone was there, and waiting. De Brak, Friedrich's military advisor and co-commander. Yui, commander of the SU-76I, sitting patiently with her arms folded. Sakura, commander of the Chaffee, her hands on her legs, gripping the ends of her skirt. Bellagio, commander of the Nahuel "Terry", arms crossed with a resting bitch face, nothing out of the ordinary there. Aika, commander of the Valiant, her leg bouncing up and down as she sat. And Hijiri, commander of the Sherman DD, her twin-tails trailing down to the floor while she read a book.

Friedrich gave her introductions, asked how everyone was feeling, asked if they were excited for the upcoming match, standard commander stuff to warm them up for a long discussion. It also gave De Brak time to scribble a map on the board with the satellite photographs Friedrich gave her.

"Now, on to the boring stuff," Friedrich said, and that was De Brak's cue to hand her the marker. "We will be battling Anzio in a fairly wooded area. Because of the difficulty of movement, I'm entrusting the position of flag tank to a more versatile team. So, Sakura, your Chaffee will be the flag tank for this match. You okay with that?"

"You got it, sweetie," Sakura winked.

"Excellent. It's not your typical forest, though, there's a lot of elevation and hardly anywhere is flat. Here, here, and to a lesser extent here, are particularly hilly and high."

Dammit, she hated giving these speeches. Bellagio already looked bored.

"This area here is particularly interesting. It's a series of dry trenches and troughs from when a network of streams used to pass through the forest. So the land around there is quite muddy, but there's no cover around it-"

"What about _in_ it?" asked Aika.

"Huh?"

"How deep are the trenches?" Aika lent forward in anticipation for the answer.

"Quite deep," Friedrich answered honestly, "I'd say a couple of feet."

"So we could drive _in_ the trenches?"

Friedrich took a moment to think that over. She was afraid to give an answer.

"Y-yes... you could. It's more of a place to shoot _into_ , as it provides no camouflage and the network of stream beds are in a bowl surrounded by higher points of elevation-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Aika traced circles on her temples, "I'm hearing a lot of big commander words here, Freddy, but is it a _good idea_?"

"No."

"Well that sucks," Aika pouted.

"But if you do somehow find yourself there..." De Brak took over, "Maybe because you got split off or something, the trenches would provide some cover from oncoming fire in an emergency."

"Then why not hide some of us there?" asked Aika, "They'd never expect it!"

"They wouldn't expect us to drive slowly towards them with our turrets pointing backwards," said Yui with a tut, "Doesn't mean it's a good idea."

"Hey!" Aika hissed, "It's a totally good idea! We hide in the trenches and ambush them when they get near!"

Friedrich started to say, "But the higher land around the trenches allows direct vision into them," but was cut off by Sakura chiming in with "That sounds like fun, we should totally do that!"

De Brak didn't even need to be told. She produced a little sign with a length of string around it. As Aika and Sakura started to come up with more atrocious ideas, agreeing with whatever the other said without giving it thought, Friedrich took the sign and draped it over her neck by the string. The sign had the word 'Commander' painted across it. She struck the pen against the board, creating a sharp tap.

Sakura and Aika shut up.

"Anyway," Friedrich continued, "The forest provides a lot of cover for the enemy, and the same is true for us. If we fighting anybody else I would take probably advantage of this. However, this is Anzio. Based on their previous strategies, I have no doubt their tankettes will be zipping all over the place acting as reconnaissance units and will be nigh on impossible to spot."

"I watched their match against Ooarai live," said Hijiri, "What if they try any of their dirty tricks?"

"My idea to counter that will be to..." Friedrich paused for a moment, and considered for a moment the horror of what she was about to say. This was the point of the war meeting she had been dreading the most. Nothing could've prepared her for the moment she had to say to the drivers of Roulette Academy... "My plan is to drive slowly in a tight and consistent formation-" she barely had a chance to finish before complaints and challenging remarks were being thrown at her.

Aika and Sakura were appalled by the idea of having to drive slowly, Hijiri and Yui started shouting at the former to take Friedrich's side, and then Bellagio joined in to tell everyone to shut up.

Friedrich's face sank. Yep, just as expected. She held her head in her hands and pinched the bridge of her nose. Then she placed her hands over her ears in preparation.

De Brak stepped forward, put her fingers into her mouth, and whistled sharply and silenced the room instantly, all heads darting back in their direction.

"Friedrich has taken careful consideration into the best possible strategy to combat the enemy," she said, "Remember, this is our first time fighting a school that has participated in the _national_ tournament! It is an honour that Anzio would humour the idea of fighting against us. Remember when the League said they doubted we'd ever make it this far? Can you blame the commander if she wants to urge on the side of caution and defence for the sake of proving the school?"

The room was left speechless. Friedrich retracted her hands from her ears, settled her weight onto one leg and placed a hand on her hip. "I don't like it either ladies, but I think it really is the best way. And when have my plans ever failed?" she finished with a grin and a thumbs up.

"Well, actually-" began De Brak.

"As we move through the forest in formation," Friedrich continued, pen back on the board as a pointer, tracing the path she described, "We will need all eyes and ears on the lookout for signs of the enemy. When someone spots something, you relay it to me _immediately_ , and we will concentrate the squad's fire on the target. With all of the good gunners we'll have at hand, this increases the chance of a hit, and by travelling together it decreases the effectiveness of their recon tanks."

"Aren't you gambling a little too much on the enemy fielding lots of tankettes?" asked Bellagio.

"Hello Bellagio, you must be new here," De Brak joked, the irony being her father owned the ship, "We're Roulette, we live to gamble."

That earned a few chuckles and Bellagio rolled her eyes. "Regardless, isn't that a bit risky?"

"Admittedly yes," said Friedrich, "But I am confident that Anzio wield field at _least_ two tankettes, because I'm expecting _them_ to expect _us_ to fan out. Anzio have their strategies down to a tee, they are going to stick to them, and those strategies are to win with brains, not firepower."

"But spreading out and attacking one on one is what we do best!" said Aika.

"Against a smaller opponent with inferior machines, yes, but since we're starting to fight the bigger fish now, we have to adapt. They will be _expecting_ us to do that because that's all we've ever done. Instead we will attack one of them with several of us to overpower them."

"But we've never done anything like it before," said Hijiri, "Will we even be able to execute the plan effectively?"

"Then it's a good thing we have three days of training ahead of us!" Friedrich said, bring her fist up with a grin.

* * *

The Roulette Academy Tankery uniform was styled after British WW2 desert uniforms, at the request of Mr. Benedict due to his obsession with desert war campaigns. Bright khaki shorts and shirts with rolled up sleeves and breast pockets. Brown or black laced up boots with shin-high thick grey socks, which could be itchy if you didn't get the right pair. And then, of course, the girls tended to spruce them up with their own additions to make them more personal.

Friedrich walked up the lineup of tanks, nervously checking the buttons on her pelisse were all done up. Nelson followed beside her. Nelson had of course brought a tea set with her, and would not be caught dead without a cup and saucer in hand. Friedrich didn't even know where she was brewing the tea.

The weather conditions on the site were good, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Bypassing the M6, she approached the SU-76I, which had Yui, Airi and Akisa sitting on the side of the hull, swinging their legs.

"How are we feeling, girls?" she asked the crew.

"Raring to go, commander!" the little voice of Maria called from inside the driver's compartment.

"I'm suddenly craving pasta," said Airi, sporting a white poppy in her hair to match the Italian theme of today's match.

"And I'm ready to shoot some tankettes," said Akisa, sitting next to her girlfriend Airi, holding hands.

"How about the flag tank?" asked Yui, "You think you could shoot that instead?"

Friedrich chuckled. "Have you performed your checks, Yui?" she asked.

"Of course, commander. She's all ready," Yui patted the top of the hull.

"Great. Then warm up the engine, we're moving soon."

Maria spluttered the engine to life. Friedrich waved her goodbyes, which were returned with friendly salutes from the crew. She moved on to the next tank over, the Sherman DD.

* * *

Akira and Youmi were the only crew members outside.

"Are the other's inside?" Friedrich asked.

"Yeah," said Akira, who had coloured her nails red, white and green for the occasion. Friedrich felt under dressed with all this theming. "Hijiri and Sumi are doing the checks, and Azumi is making sure she has her optic adjustments _exactly_ right. She doesn't want to mess up a single shot today."

Friedrich had stopped listening halfway through to try remembering which ones were Sumi, Youmi and Azumi. With ten tanks and an average of four members each, she had forty names to remember and this just wasn't making her job easier.

She shook her head to bring herself back down to Earth. "How are you two feeling? Excited?"

Youmi simply nodded, her ever unblinking eyes not leaving Friedrich.

"Oh yes!" said Akira with an excited nod, "Everyone is excited! They all understand how important this match will be for us!"

"No kidding," Friedrich scoffed, "I'm just hoping it doesn't cause performance anxiety for anyone."

Youmi raised an eyebrow. "Are _you_ okay, Friedrich? That almost sounded like a call for help."

Friedrich blinked. She was quite taken aback by the question. _Was_ she okay?

Nelson put a hand on Friedrich's shoulder. "She's just fine, because she realises that at the end of the day, it's all just a game and we're here to have fun!" she offered her cup to Friedrich, who waved it off.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, Youmi. Thanks for asking."

Youmi wasn't convinced. But she left it at that.

Friedrich carried on to the next tank. She suddenly felt a little itchy across her arms and around her face. She had been like this during their first ever match against another school. She tried to ignore it.

* * *

Next was the Chaffee. The crew were sitting on the chassis and giggling to themselves. Friedrich knew she just had to ask.

"Sakura, have you performed your last minute checks?"

"Oh, damn! Quickly ladies, look busy!"

Friedrich crossed her arms. "No, _be_ busy. These checks are important."

"I'm pulling your leg, Friedrich," Sakura giggled. "We actually have done the checks on time for once!"

Friedrich was speechless. Her eyes widened. "You have?"

"After I reminded them," said Allison, the driver, popping her head up from inside the driver's compartment. While Sakura was the commander of the Chaffee, Allison was more of the leader. She knew what her friends were like and knew that someone needed to be the one to have their eyes fixed forwards.

"Thanks, Allison," said Friedrich, "That's saved us some time. Get the engine warmed up and into your positions. We're heading out soon."

"Aye, commander!" the crew said unison.

Just as they were buttoning up, Sakura paused before dropping into the cupola and said, "By the way Friedrich, try relaxing a bit, you look a little tense."

"What? N-no I don't!"

"Yes you do, sweetheart. Your posture is too sturdy. You look like you're waiting to receive a medal."

Before Friedrich could retaliate, Sakura disappeared into the cupola. Friedrich couldn't think of anything to do other than curse in German, and was stopped silent when she felt Nelson, having set her cup and saucer down, starting to rub her shoulders.

"Friedrich, you're tense, everyone can see it. Just take some deep breaths and enjoy the atmosphere."

Friedrich blushed a bright red. Regardless of whether she was tense or not, Nelson was doing a good job of digging her fingers into some knots in her muscles.

She cleared her throat and said, "Umm, thanks Nelson. I'm feeling a little better."

"I'll give your a proper massage after the match if you'd like," Nelson said sweetly.

"I didn't know you knew how to give massages."

"I don't, but how hard can it be?"

Friedrich gave a small smile. "Maybe. We'll see how I feel."

* * *

Next was the Nahuel, and any tension that Nelson had managed to flush away was going to come crashing back. This was the crew Friedrich always dreaded checking on, but she had a sense of professionalism she needed to uphold.

Of course, the four members of the crew were arguing. Well, three of them. Mirage wasn't there.

"Dammit, Ocean, give it back!"

"Give what back? I didn't take anything."

"You don't damn well what, give it back now or I will tell Daddy!"

"You can't prove anything!"

"Come on you two, stop it! We're starting the match soon!"

"Shut up, Emgie! I'm sick and tired of Ocean's shit!"

Friedrich rubbed her temples in circles breathed a sigh of frustration. She could've really gone for a back rub right now.

"Why do you do this, Ocean? You steal, you cheat, you lie, all because you want to get noticed by Daddy because you feel like you have something to prove!"

" _I_ cheat and lie? Don't pull that card, Bellagio! I'm sure Daddy would love to hear about your nights at the Seven Clovers!"

"Don't call him that, you're not even a real Benedict!"

"That's enough!" Friedrich shouted, her naturally powerful German voice sounding like a thunderclap.

Bellagio, Ocean and Emgie shut up and looked to her.

"Ocean, whatever it is you stole this time, give it back. For God's sake girls, we're about to have a match! Have you even performed your checks?"

Mirage clambered out of the commander's hatch and hopped down next to her sisters. She gripped her fists and planted her feet firmly on the ground, mentally preparing herself for a social encounter. She focused hard to keep her stutter under control. "I h-have, Commander..."

"Good job, Mirage," Friedrich nodded. "Now. Everyone in the tank. We're moving soon," and she carried on walking.

Bellagio scoffed at the situation. Then she felt Ocean poking her shoulder. She looked at her and saw she was poking her with her phone that she had just _known_ she stole.

She swiped it from Ocean's grip.

"One of these days..." she growled.

* * *

"I hate to ask, Aika..." said Friedrich as she approached the Valiant, with Aika, Ume and Chiyo standing around it, evaluating the idea of the 'network of trenches' idea from earlier. "...but have you done your-?"

"Oh, drat!" Aika slapped her forehead, "Sorry, Commander, but we completely forgot!"

Friedrich rubbed her face.

" _You_ forgot," said Keiko, climbing out of the commander's hatch, "I remembered just fine. Everything's okay, Commander."

"Thanks, Keiko," Friedrich said with a sigh of relief, "How is everyone feeling?"

"PUMPED!" Aika cried with a leap, flinging her arms up.

"PUMPED!" Ume agreed with a leap of her own, jabbing her fist into the air.

"PUM-OH SH-!" Chiyo jumped and then fell over on the landing, forgetting she was wearing her stilts. Ume caught her just in time.

"Are you okay, Chiyo?!" Friedrich cried, worried she might have damaged her ankles.

"I-I'm just fine..." said Chiyo, "My heart's just racing, is all..."

"Well, take it easy," Friedrich smiled, "Have a sit down in the driver's seat. I need you to warm the engine up anyway, we're about of head off."

"We're starting soon?!" Aika cried. "HELL YEAH!"

The Red Jokers were nothing if not enthusiastic.

* * *

Taking in the smell of exhaust fumes and gasoline from the revving tanks as she walked back, Friedrich approached the M6.

"How are the last minute checks?" she called into it.

"Just fine, darling," De Brak's head popped out of the driver's hatch like a Whack-a-Mole. Without her Czapka on it it almost gave a sense of nudity about her. "Are you okay? You look pale."

"Just nerves," Friedrich said with a light hand wave. "It's an important match, y'know?"

"Darling, if you're not feeling well, maybe we should call the match off?"

"No no! I would feel even worse if we had to do that. Just... just let me get in the zone when it starts and I'll forget to feel nervous."

De Brak smiled. "Tell you what, darling. You win this match for us and drinks are on me."

"De Brak, we don't drink."

"Not officially, we don't," she gave a wink and shut the driver's hatch. Friedrich was left a little awestruck, but had to start moving when the M6 engine started up.

Yekaterina climbed out of the loader's hatch to give Friedrich a hand climbing the huge heavy tank. Friedrich took up her position in the commander's cupola. Custer was there to hand her a radio headset.

As she waited for Nelson to come back, Friedrich took a moment to appreciate the crew she was lucky to have. It had become standard at this point, feeling proud of her tank crew after speaking to the others, but it never got old and the realisation that she had a genuinely good and loyal crew struck her afresh every time. She kind of felt bad for doing it, it was kind of selfish in a way, as it meant she was comparing her crew to the other lesser competent ones.

But despite any of their professionalism, everyone always had fun. Yes, even the Nahuel crew. Eventually.

* * *

Friedrich trudged forwards with her fists balled and her breath held, with her second-in-command, De Brak alongside her. She felt the brush of grass over her boots with every step she took. The rumble of the engines just behind her were a reminder of how close the match was to starting. The fact that Anchovy was walking towards her to meet her halfway was another.

When they stopped, her stomach churned. A thousand butterflies all clambering to escape. She felt like she should've spoken first. A 'thank you' to the Anzio commander for giving them this match. A 'good luck, may the best team win'. Anything at all.

But Anchovy took the initiative and offered a hand.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Friedrich. I hope we have a good match," she said with a big, confident grin, her eyes narrowed cockily.

Friedrich took the shake, but before she could say anything, the forceful Duce said, "But don't expect us to hold back. We want our win to be earned, understood?"

"I could say the same to you, Anchovy," said Friedrich.

* * *

" _The skirmish match between Roulette Academy and Anzio Girls' Highschool will now commence!_ "

A dense forest. The sun overhead. A strong opponent, hidden somewhere within. Strategies she wasn't used to. The reliance of the whole team upon her shoulders. She gripped the edges of the cupola tight as the introductory match fanfare drew to an end.

She heard the whistle of the starting shot.

And then it popped.

"Roulette! Forwards!"

* * *

"Avanti!"


	6. We're Fighting Our Cousins! II

**Chapter 5: We're Fighting Our Cousins!** **II**

* * *

 **A/N: I finally found the name for the kind of terrain I had in mind for the match! I was never pleased with calling it a 'forest' or 'woods' with 'dense foliage', because it almost sounded like I was describing a jungle. But I found it! The kind of terrain I had in mind was 'shrubland'! Go Google it!**

* * *

The tanks rolled forward, the M6 leading the way, protecting the Chaffee behind it. To its right, the Valiant and Sherman DD drivers struggled to not slam their feet on the throttle. To the M6's left, the SU-76I and Nahuel were expertly keeping in line.

All the commanders were unbuttoned, they needed as much visibility as they could get for the plan to be effective. Friedrich didn't usually ride unbuttoned, usually only in tense situations where she was sick of not being able to spot an enemy only a few feet away.

The tanks carved through the thick foliage, only vaguely being slowed down. Friedrich only just now started to appreciate how dense the forest was. There were very few footpaths, a few trees had fallen over and uprooted, and nowhere stayed level for too long before either dipping or rising.

"Two of Clubs to all commanders, remember to keep your eyes peeled and on the horizon," Friedrich relayed into the radio.

" _Are we firing as soon as we spot them, or do we alert you and shoot as one?_ " Hijiri asked one tank over. It was uncanny to watch her talk whilst being only so far away and yet - due to the cacophony of engines - to only hear her voice through the radio.

"Alert the rest of the squad to the enemy's position, but don't wait for the rest of us to aim to start shooting. We want to harass the target as much as possible to suppress them, and eventually eliminate them. I'll alert you all if your orders change. Understood?"

" _Three of Diamonds, understood, Commander,_ " said Hijiri.

" _Five of Hearts, loud and clear!_ " said Sakura.

" _Seven of Diamonds, sure thing,_ " said Bellagio.

" _Eight of Spades, understood,_ " said Yui.

" _You got it, Freddy!_ " said Aika.

Friedrich smiled. On any other day she might have rolled her eyes and felt silently irritated over a near perfect roll call, but she just couldn't stay mad at Aika's enthusiasm.

* * *

"Pepperoni, give me a visual report," Anchovy was sweeping through the forest in the east, giving the middle of the map a wide berth. A Semovente rolled alongside her to provide bodyguard support, as the P40 was Anzio's flag tank for the match. The second Semovente was sweeping around the west.

Pepperoni and her squad of CV.33s had zipped off the moment they had heard Anchovy utter the first syllable of 'Avanti'. They were storming through the forest down the middle, their driving akin to dirt rally racers. The constant changes in elevation with all the humps in the terrain made it feel like a rollercoaster ride.

" _Nothing to report yet, Duce!_ " Pepperoni relayed back enthusiastically with a big grin. Anchovy rolled her eyes. Only Pepperoni could sound excited over seeing nothing. " _We're approximately a few klicks into the woods now, and all is crispy!_ "

"Wait... you're that far in and you haven't seen them?"

" _Nope, nothing!_ "

"Then where are they?" Anchovy muttered, more to herself than anything. The tankettes weren't _that_ fast, they should've met at least one enemy tank by now. Bending at the knees, she called through, "Driver, go slower, they could be having the same idea as us and lurking along the outskirts."

"Si!"

"Pepperoni, change formation from 'salami stick' to 'pizza sauce'. I want every inch of that forest surveyed!"

" _You got it, Duce!_ "

* * *

Roulette team had drifted towards the east, partly because Friedrich didn't want to charge straight through the middle of the map, but mostly because the terrain had forced them. There had been a sheer ten foot drop they wanted to avoid, and the only way forward was to drift east.

Friedrich was starting to worry. Some of the commanders were asking to pick up the pace or break formation as the crew were getting bored. Not only that, but the longer they went without seeing the enemy, the more skittish she felt. The anticipation of finally seeing the yellows of a Semovente's eyes was crushing.

Bored of being forced to cruise at five kilometres an hour, Chiyo opened up a radio transmission with Sumi in the Sherman DD, "Hey, Sumi. Who do you think would win in a race between us?"

"Are you seriously asking that? The Sherman beats the Valiant any day!"

Friedrich allowed it. So long as the commanders were on the look out, all the drivers needed to worry about was keeping in a straight line.

"Yeah, but we all know I'm a better driver," Chiyo retorted.

A few others jumped into the transmission from other tanks to offer some "ooooh!"s. "Them's fightin' words!", Sakura added.

Sumi responded with, "This coming from a dwarf who can't reach the pedals without sitting in her high chair."

Even Friedrich couldn't help but snigger at the retort.

"That was a low blow!" said Chiyo.

"Not as low as your height," quipped Bellagio.

"Hey!" snapped Chiyo, "Nobody asked you, you skank!"

Bellagio flashed daggers in the direction of the Valiant. "You want to crawl out of your hole and say that to my face, you dirty cow!"

"Come over here and grab her yourself!" Aika said in Bellagio's direction with a beat of her chest, "But you'll have to get past me first!"

"I wasn't talking to you, you filthy masochist!"

" _Masochist_?!" Aika said, slapping herself in the face to get some adrenaline pumping. "What's wrong with masochism, _sadist_?"

"Guys, please..." Friedrich pleaded, a little too quietly.

"Oh the irony of retorting with the old 'I wasn't talking to you' excuse, when you yourself invaded the conversation," Yui shook her head with a rather patronising tut.

"Oh the irony that you're doing that _right now_!" Bellagio hissed.

"Am I? I was merely making an observation."

"Don't you get sassy with me, gaijin!"

"And now we descend into completely meaningless insults. Doesn't your family have Italian ancestry?"

"My Daddy owns our ship! So don't you-!"

"'My Daddy' this, 'my Daddy' that," Ocean whined from the Nahuel gunner seat, "Just be glad none of you live with her. It's like this 24/7."

That earned a few chuckles.

"Ocean! I SWEAR TO GOD!"

* * *

"Duce, I don't think we have anything to worry about," Pepperoni reported into the radio.

" _What's going on?_ "

"I'm observing the enemy as we speak. The commanders are all shouting at each other. Their hierarchy appears to be in complete disarray."

" _Really? I expected Friedrich would be able to command respect from her troops. Do you mean they're physically shouting at each other?_ "

"Si."

" _So they're all together?_ "

"They're travelling in a spread formation with the flag tank hiding behind the M6. They're moving at a slow pace through the forest."

" _So despite their bickering they're maintaining formation?_ "

"Yeah, but only just."

" _Attacking them will be too dangerous then. A team like that might have an itchy trigger finger. I can't sacrifice a single Semovente just to take out one of their own._ "

"So what's the plan?"

Anchovy sniggered on the other end of the line. Pepperoni grew an all-knowing shark smile. She knew the Duce had a plan.

* * *

Friedrich finally managed to get the team under control again and they continued combing through the forest in their wide convoy.

When suddenly, Aika gasped like it was Christmas. In her excitement, she frantically blurted, "Keiko! Onetwothree o'clock! On the ridge! Firefirefire!" she hopped up and down in the basket.

Keiko swung the Valiant's gun to the right, raising the gun as she went. She saw a streak of yellow as her optics shot past a Semovente.

A mere second after Aika had started giving her orders, to her right Hijiri was giving her own orders to her Sherman DD.

"Azumi! Twenty degrees up, left a bit!"

Keiko lined the shot up in the Valiant, and Azumi was on the target in a flash. Keiko cursed as she saw the target start to roll out of sight. The guns fired and the two tracer shells soared through the air toward the target.

The Semovente just crawled out of sight into the foliage, and the shells harmlessly struck either the ground or the tree near where it had just been.

As per their orders, the volley of fire from the other tanks soon followed. Four shells fired at staggered times bombarded the rough area around where the Semovente had been spotted. They were either off target from the frantic aiming, or they disappeared harmlessly into the bushes.

As the loaders then got to work with reloading the guns as quickly as they could, Aika opened up a team-wide transmission.

"Freddy, we've got the bastard on the run, let's chase it!"

"No," came Friedrich's response, "We avert our course to advance in that direction, but we can't go rushing into-"

A loud bang could then be heard, and a shell scraped the side of the Valiant's hull.

"You bitch!" Aika screeched. She darted her bloodshot eyes to the source and saw what she thought to be the same Semovente in the same spot with its gun pointed their way.

"All tanks..." Friedrich started her order, "Load up, aim and-"

"CHARGE!" Aika yelled.

"What?! No-!"

"Up!" Aika heard Ume call from inside the vehicle.

"Chiyo, full speed ahead!" Aika squawked, leaning forward in an adrenaline fuelled craze, "Keiko, I want that Semi Venti's head on a platter!"

The Valiant roared - as best a Valiant could - as the throttle was slammed down. Chiyo screamed, "We'll make you eat sh-"

"Red Joker, get back here!" Friedrich half ordered, half pleaded. She started to hear a series of "ready"s in her ear from the other commanders as their loaders finished up. The Valiant spoke as a shell was fired haphazardly and uselessly chewed through a tree branch. Friedrich grit her teeth.

"Scheisse! All tanks, seize fire!"

She bent her knees and yelled directly into the compartment, "Yeka! Shoot that Semovente!"

Yekaterina wordlessly peered through the optics. She knew the urgency of the situation, but didn't fire blindly. Her gun was already aiming at the spot from earlier. All she had to do was make a slight adjustment and...

 _BANG_

"Miss," she relayed. The Semovente had moved out of the way again.

"Dammit!" Friedrich balled her fist.

" _Commander!_ " Hijiri jumped into the transmission, " _Shall we go ahead and retrieve Red Joker?_ _O_ _r at least keep them safe?_ "

Friedrich knew bringing the Valiant back wasn't an option at this point, Aika was out of control. She had had too much of a head start, and the only tank that could catch them that wasn't the Chaffee was the Sherman.

"Three of Diamonds," Friedrich began to respond, "Go with them and provide covering fire..." the Sherman was already on the move, "Hijiri will assume command of this new squadron. Try not to engage the enemy if you can help it!"

"You got it, Commander!" Hijiri called with her hands cupped to her mouth. She gave a big smile and a peace sign as they zoomed off.

The Valiant was struggling to climb the incline up to the Semovente's vantage point. The Sherman would eventually catch up with it.

"Alright, Roulette," Friedrich said into the radio, "Let's continue advancing in formation."

* * *

The Valiant crawled up the hill.

"Go faster you useless piece of junk!" Chiyo shouted at the pedals.

"Maybe I should get out and push?" Ume asked half seriously, shoving a shell into the gun with her fist.

"It probably would make the thing go faster!" said Chiyo.

"Up, by the way," said Ume.

"Heeeey! Aikaaaa!" Aika turned to see the Sherman DD almost effortlessly catching up to them and rolling alongside them. Hijiri, still unbuttoned, was waving. Aika pouted at the sight of the Sherman making the climb look easy.

"If you're going into battle, you could at least use some help!" Hijiri smiled.

" _And a better driver_ ," Sumi said over the transmission.

Chiyo rammed the Valiant into the side of the Sherman. It didn't do much.

"Aika," Hijiri continued, "I'm going to circle around the spot we saw the Semovente. You should do the same, it could be waiting for us in ambush."

"Exactly!" Aika tapped her temple, "They know that we know they're waiting for us! So we double bluff them and go straight through!"

Hijiri... didn't know how to respond. She stared blankly with her mouth partially hanging open.

"Fine, go straight through if you want," Hijiri waved her hand, "But we're going ahead to-"

"NO! The Venti is ours! They shot us first!"

Hijiri held us her hands, "Alright! You can shoot the Semovente but we're still going to circle it!"

Aika grumbled to herself. "Fine!" she said. She turned to face forwards, laced her fingers together and pushed her palms out to crack her fingers. And then she slapped herself in the face and pumped her fist, "NOW LET'S DO THIS!"

Hijiri rolled her eyes and commanded Sumi to drive ahead. The Sherman picked up speed, and at further orders turned right to swoop around the dense foliage the Semovente was suspected to be hiding in. On top of this fill there was a cluster of trees, bushes and shrubs, with a ring of flat ground around it.

Hijiri kept her eyes peeled. She suspected the Semovente to be lying in ambush, but something else didn't feel right. Why would a single Semovente attack the entire Roulette force?

Whilst glancing around, she noticed tank tracks in the mud ahead. They looked like they came out of the foliage and then made a left turn to go around.

"I wonder where those ca-" she stopped suddenly at the realisation. "No, those tracks reversed! SUMI! STOP!"

Sumi nearly tore her arms off wrenching back on the levers. The Sherman braked sharply , tossing around everyone inside. And just in the nick of time.

Hijiri was deafened and scared half to death as a gun fired to the left. The shell glanced off the steep angled hull of the Sherman and ricocheted into the woods.

Hijiri didn't wait around to find out what that was. Disappearing into the cupola and pulling the hatch closed with her heart going at a million miles an hour, she ordered, "Reverse! Azumi, left!"

The Sherman started pulling backwards while the turret swung to the left. Hijiri couldn't see the target in the brush, so as soon as the gun was aiming vaguely to the far left, she ordered, "Fire!"

The shell tore through the foliage. The Sherman continued to reverse.

" _You okay?_ " Aika asked over the radio.

" _Come in, Three of Diamonds, what was that?_ " Friedrich asked.

"We were shot at by an unknown enemy!"

" _Ha! So much for the middle being a lost cause!_ " Aika gloated. " _We'll go through and cover your- oh SHI-_ "

Chiyo drove the Valiant straight through the brush. Aika was slapped about by branches as the Valiant tore through.

"Chiyo, what are you-?!"

"Realising my dream, Aika!"

The Valiant then crashed right into the Semovente Aika had spotted hiding in the foliage.

"Ah!" Aika panicked, "Keiko! Shoot!"

"I can hardly move the turret!" Keiko shouted back as the turret got tangled in strands.

"Chiyo, reverse!" Aika ordered.

The Semovente had had the same idea. Its crew were also panicking inside as the Valiant had done the unexpected.

" _Red Joker, Three of Diamonds, what is going on?_ " Friedrich demanded.

"I'll call you back later, Freddy!" Aika answered. "Reverse, Chiyo! REVERSE!"

Over at the Sherman, Sumi tried to brake one tread sharply to do a 180 turn. An ambitious manoeuvre that saw little success. She'd only managed to kick the Sherman into a ninety degree turn and was now face to face with the mass of shrubs.

"Dammit!" she cursed.

Sumi wrestled with the controls to get the Sherman back on course. Hijiri glanced to where they had just been to only watch in horror as the P40 pulled itself out of the brush. She spotted the yellow golf flag erected on its hull. The turret was turning in their direction.

"Sumi! Just reverse!"

The Sherman rolled backward and a shell from the P40 shot past where they had just been. Azumi was already turning the turret to shoot at the P40.

"Up!" Akira called.

"Fire!" Hijiri ordered.

Azumi grimaced and fired. In her desperation to end the match by killing the flag tank, her aim was off. The shot ricocheted off the side of the P40's hull. "Dammit!

"Don't worry!" Hijiri assured, "Azumi, get us out of-"

Hijiri changed her mind when she saw the P40 turning and bolting for it.

"Scratch that, chase the flag tank!"

Sumi turned the Sherman and gave chase.

"Friedrich, this is Hijiri! We're currently in pursuit of their flag tank, the P40!"

" _The flag tank is up there?! Which way is it going?_ "

"We're chasing it along the rim of this hill, around all these bushes in the middle! It's going to start heading back north!"

" _Roger! We will maintain formation and advance forwards to intercept it!_ "

Meanwhile, the Semovente was desperately trying to reverse back through all the thick brush. Chiyo had managed to reverse the tank just enough for Keiko to get some wiggle room to turn the turret.

"That's perfect, Chiyo!" Keiko said, "Now-"

"Now ram the bitch again!" Aika ordered.

"What?! No, don't-!"

The Valiant rumbled as the engine pushed the tank forwards. Keiko tutted and aimed as best she could and fired. The shell scraped over the top of the Semovente. The Semovente fired in turn, but the impact of the Valiant ramming into it again jolted the gun and the shell flew off into the sky.

"Push!" Aika yelled.

"What good would that-?"

"PUSH!" Aika bellowed over Keiko.

The Valiant smothered against the Semovente, which was in turn reversing. The constant scraping and jolting forced the gunners in both tanks to give up on any attempts to get a clear shot.

The two tanks broke free of the thick foliage. The Semovente broke away from the Valiant with its reversing.

"Great!" Keiko said, "Now I can-"

She lined up the shot. And her heart sank when the Semovente disappeared as it reverse down a slope. "No!"

And then the P40 was speeding past her optics.

"Where did _that_ come from?!" she hollered.

"It doesn't matter!" Aika shouted, "Catch that Semi Venti! It will not get away!"

"B-but it's the _flag_ tan-"

"The Venti will rue the day it shot at us!"

Chiyo drove forwards, giving chase to the Semovente.

The Sherman DD, in full pursuit of the P40, had followed it around the brush. The P40 had cut between the Semovente and Valiant which had been pushing _through_ the brush.

Sumi got the fright of her life when the Valiant suddenly cut in front of her. Screaming, she pulled hard on the brakes, but in her panic she didn't get the grip on one and it slipped out of her hand back into position.

The Sherman still collided with the Valiant, and the Valiant's momentum pulled the Sherman into facing the same direction as it. Now, the two tanks were on a one way trip down a very steep slope in pursuit of the Semovente.

* * *

With the Chaffee behind her, and the Nahuel and SU-76I to her left, Friedrich was keeping an eye out along the ridge to the right. The ground was quite high and stayed like that some ways up north. Climbing the incline would slow all the tanks down to the point the P40 could zip away.

Friedrich didn't want to separate the group, but understood that worrying about formation was not going to help them in chasing the flag tank. Friedrich took a moment to sit down in her commander's seat to inspect the map. After some quick consideration, she stood back up again.

"Eight of Spades..." she said into the radio to the SU-76I, "And Seven of Diamonds..." and to the Nahuel crew, "You two go ahead. Track down that P40 and eliminate it."

" _Are you sure that's a good idea, Commander?_ " asked Yui.

"We're quite close to the Eastern border of the map. The P40 has only one direction to go in, and that's North. If either of you can pull ahead of it and cut it off while the other comes up from the rear, we've got our victory."

" _You got it, Friedrich!_ " Bellagio responded.

"I'll be guarding the Chaffee, so you two will have to take the initiative. Neither one of you is in command. Work together, not against each other."

The Nahuel and SU-76I pulled away, tearing ahead with speeds the M6 could not hope to match.

" _So, Friedrich,_ " said Sakura, " _What's our plan?_ "

"We will move into the heart of the woods to hide from the enemy. My M6 will act as your bodyguard and escort."

" _Geez, I hope we get to do some hectic shooting_ _of our own_ _eventually! Everyone else is off doing their own thing!_ "

And right on cue, they heard a cannon firing somewhere in the forest.

"Sorry, Sakura, but I'm taking all precautions I can to keep the flag tank safe."

" _Yeah, yeah, don't worry honey, I hear ya!_ "

* * *

Chiyo and Sumi wrestled with their driver controls in a desperate attempt to keep the tank straight. Not so they could drive it, they had no hope in hell of doing that. Whilst slipping down this extremely steep incline, they had to keep the tanks as straight as possible so they didn't flip over. At some point the Valiant had pulled slightly ahead of the Sherman in the descent.

The Semovente was bouncing and trotting as well as it reversed down the hill. None of the gunners in any of the three tanks bothered to take their chances with a lucky shot. Their optics were being tossed around in all directions and looking anywhere from the blue sky to the dirt in the ground.

Hijiri held the sides of her basket to avoid slamming her head against the sides. Aika on the other hand had foam padding on the sharp edges. She bust the cupola open and stuck her head out, whilst getting tossed around inside the basket.

And she gasped in delight.

"It's the trenches!" she cried.

As Friedrich had said, the network of trenches left behind by small rivers and stream was present in this bowl in the terrain. All the land around them was much higher, except for a slight parting in between the hills where all the water would've spilled out.

As the ground started to even off, and get muddier in the process, the Semovente made one last drop into one of the dry stream beds, several feet deep.

"Follow them!" Aika ordered.

Chiyo slammed her foot on the throttle, and the treads of the Valiant started kicking up mud, spraying the front of the Sherman behind it.

"I can't see!" cried Sumi as her vision slits were sprayed with mud.

The Valiant made a nosedive into the trenches after the Semovente. With a blind driver and a commander that couldn't see much better, the Sherman followed it in. The girls inside screamed in terror as they felt all the weight of the vehicle tip forward. Azumi grabbed onto the nearest thing she could think of for support, and accidentally fired the gun right into the ground, which would become the cannon fire that Friedrich heard.

"What was that?!" cried Azumi, her knuckles white from gripping the handles of the gun in terror.

"Did we fall of a cliff?" asked Sumi.

"That wasn't a steep enough drop to be a cliff..." said Youmi.

"Those damn Jokers!" cursed Sumi. She popped the driver's hatch open and crawled out. "We're in a trench!" she relayed back to the crew. She lent forwards over the front of the Sherman and scraped the mud off her visor.

"Where's Red Joker?" asked Hijiri.

"I can't see them."

"Come in, Red Joker, this is Three of Diamonds. Where are you?"

" _Red Joker is currently in pursuit of the enemy! We're chasing this bitch around this maze!_ "

"Which direction did you go?"

" _Right? No, left... I can't remember! Just drive around until you find the Venti and shoot it!_ "

"Maybe we could drive out?" asked Azumi. "And we could drive around the trenches or in between them?"

"These slopes seem too slippery and steep," said Sumi, twisting in her driver's seat with an arm slumped over the backrest.

"The Semovente is too low to spot from up there," said Hijiri, thinking aloud, "And we don't have the gun depression to shoot down."

"How about driving back up the hill and using it to aim lower?" asked Akira.

"If the Semovente spots us doing that, we're a sitting duck," Hijiri shook her head, "We'll be _really_ slow driving up that slope."

"So our only option is to drive around like a rat in a maze with the Jokers, hoping we find the Vente and shoot it before it shoots us?" Azumi asked worriedly.

"It seems like it," Hijiri nodded, "Everyone back to your positions. Sumi, I'm going to give you driving orders. Azumi, I want your gun always pointing forward when on straight paths, but turn the turret around corners ahead of the tank, our short barrel will help us here. Youmi, I want Red Joker to tell us when they spot the Semovente and what its position is."

Hijiri pulled out a map and folded it over to the part with the trenches on it, then laid it out across her lap. She pulled out a marker pen and jotted down the spot where they were.

"You're not unbuttoning, Hijiri?" asked Azumi.

"No," Hijiri responded, "I'm going to guide you by map, and I need to mark down the Semovente's last sightings."

"Good idea!" said Sumi. "Which way?"

"Left."

* * *

Neither of the drivers of the SU-76I or Nahuel were waiting around for the other. They also paid little attention to the damage they might be inflicting on their poor transmission. Or the people in the vehicle. Much to some of the latter's despair.

"Dammit, Emgie!" cried Bellagio, "Slow down!"

"I can't, sis! The P40 has already got a head start!"

"Good for the P40!" Bellagio snarked sarcastically.

"Oh sweet, a ramp!" Emgie cried.

"Now you're just doing it for the-" Bellagio was cut short as she felt all the weight of her body leave her like she was going down in a fast elevator. The tracks of the Nahuel crashed back down to the ground and everyone was jolted inside.

"I'm going to get whiplash!" Ocean complained.

"Finally, something we agree on..." said Bellagio.

" _You still keeping up with us?_ " Yui asked.

"Unfortunately," Bellagio responded. She then cursed as she remembered what they were meant to be doing. She popped her head out of the cupola to get a better view to look around. Nearby she could see Yui, already with her torso sticking out of her turret. Yui waved with what Bellagio could swear was a smirk.

"Have you spotted anything?" Bellagio asked.

" _Negative_ ," said Yui, watching the ridge above them to their right, " _I've been keeping my eye on that ridge line and I haven't-_ "

"Behind you!"

Yui darted her head in the other direction and immediately saw the Semovente coming out of the clearing that Bellagio had spotted. They had been travelling parallel to a wall of shrubbery on their left and were sticking to flatter ground. The Semovente was emerging from a parting in the foliage.

"Maria, brake left!" Yui ordered.

Maria yanked on the brakes and the SU-76I skidded to a stop, with the braking angling the tank to face in the direction of the Semovente.

"Akisa," Yui shouted in Russian, as she did when she spoke to her sister in the tank, "Fire!"

Akisa wasn't ready for the shot, she couldn't shoot in time. The Semovente fired at them, and the shell glanced off their side armour. It then turned to its right and vanished into the forest.

"That was lucky they missed," Yui noted.

"You okay?" Bellagio asked, the Nahuel pulling beside the SU-76I within shouting distance.

"We're fine," Yui responded. "Did you see any other hostiles?"

Bellagio gave a quick glance around the forest. "None. Just the one."

"We need to keep moving, it could be coming back, and the P40 is going to be getting away."

And the duo set off again, desperately trying to make up lost ground. The Semovente wasn't important to them right now, as its elimination wasn't going to win them the game. That didn't stop both Yui and Bellagio giving a few quick glances behind to make sure they weren't being followed.

After a couple of minutes, something dawned on Yui.

"How did they know where we were?" she asked into the radio.

Bellagio paused, unable to respond. " _That's... a good question..._ "

"I have a theory."

" _Well, don't leave me hanging._ "

"Do you think the commander could've been correct in her predictions of a reconnaissance unit?"

The conversation was bizarre for the two. They were having a face to face discussion, looking between each other over their tanks, but speaking into radios because of all the noise.

" _Maybe, but why spy on us and not the flag tank?_ " asked Bellagio.

"Because we're going after _their_ flag tank. It's just as important, if not more so, that their flag tank stays alive and safe."

" _So we've got tankettes watching us right now?_ "

"It's not implausi- No, it makes complete sense! How did they know to where we were to shoot us from the hill earlier?"

" _Well, damn! Maybe we should split up to find the little tykes, then? Spread them out a bit?_ "

"No, because right now our priority is- TANK!" Yui fisted the air with a pointing finger.

Bellagio's head snapped in the direction Yui was looking and she saw it. The P40 was above them driving on the ridge in the same direction as them, its little yellow golf flag springing about. The SU and Nahuel were ever so slightly faster than it and they were slowly gaining on it.

"Ocean, 45 degrees right, aim up!" Bellagio ordered.

"Akisa, target 60 degrees right, about ten to fifteen high!" Yui commanded.

The gunners responded, executing their respective commander's orders.

"Come on, Ocean, we could win the match with this!" said Bellagio.

"Don't pressure me!"

"Akisa," Yui said in Russian, "One shot, one kill, that's all it needs..."

"Maria, stop the tank, I can't aim like this."

Maria saw a request like that from Roulette's best sniper like an order from her commander. She pulled back on the brakes to give Akisa the stability she needed.

In the Nahuel, Ocean was banking on a moving shot to get the kill. The optics bounced up and down, the P40 was rarely ever in sight.

"Fire when ready," said Bellagio.

Ocean took the shot. And it almost hit. It struck the ground near the tracks and caused the ridge to collapse beneath the P40. The tank almost fell down with it, with the rear half of the vehicle being dragged down, but the driver managed to keep it under control. That was right when Akisa took her own shot, and had the P40 kept moving, the shot would've intercepted the flag tank. Instead, it missed.

"дерьмо!" Akisa cursed.

"Don't worry, Akisa!" said Airi, shoving in the next shell she already had ready, "You'll get the next one!"

"Akisa, we have company coming from the rear!" said Yui.

"Seriously?" Akisa groaned and started to rotate the turret.

"Maria, get us moving, our rear is exposed!"

Maria started to turn the tank on the spot, without much thought for the direction. She rotated the tank in the opposite way to Akisa rotating the turret.

"What are you doing?!' Akisa exclaimed, "Go the other way!"

"Oh, sorry!" Maria cried.

"No, don't go the other way!" shouted Yui, "You've already started one way, don't stop now!"

"What do you want me to do?!" Maria threw her arms up.

"Just rotate the fu-!" Yui's ears exploded as she heard a shell strike the side of their tank. Cursing profusely, she waited for the _schwift_ of the white flag.

The Semovente that shot them from behind, satisfied with its kill, adjusted its course to make a beeline for the Nahuel.

At this point, Bellagio only just noticed what was going on with her comrades that she had left in the dust.

"They found us again?!" she growled. She gave a quick glance back up to the ridge only to find the P40 had disappeared, probably into the woods above them. "Well, _they're_ gone now. Emgie! One eighty!"

Emgie pulled on the right brake and the Nahuel did a sweeping U-turn, and charged toward the Semovente that was heading directly toward them.

"Don't mess this one up, Ocean!" said Bellagio.

"I will with all this rocking!"

"Get ready to fire!"

Ocean gritted her teeth.

"Emgie! _Break!_ "

Emgie pushed with her feet against the driver's compartment to pull the brakes back. The tank rocked forward from the momentum, digging its tracks into the dirt from the brake force. The Semovente had fired at that moment, narrowly missing the top of Bellagio's head.

Ocean took the shot as soon as the gun had levelled off, but the Semovente veered off to the side after firing and the shell only chipped the corner of its rear hull.

"Dammit!" Ocean stamped her foot, " _So_ close!"

Bellagio watched as the Semovente disappeared into the woods once more.

"Those damn cowardly Italians!" she hissed, "These bait-and-retreat tactics are really starting to grind my gears!"

Bellagio ordered the Nahuel to pull up alongside the SU-76I, just as the crew of said tank were starting to clamber out of it with extra track parts.

"How's it going?" asked Bellagio. "Your treads have seen better days."

"Yeah, turns out the Semovente just detracked us," said Yui, "We're still in the game, thankfully."

"How long do you think that Semovente was following us? It couldn't have been radio'd in by the P40, it responded far too quickly."

"I don't think it was following us. That foliage is too thick to keep up with us at our speed. We're travelling on the only flat ground."

"Then how did they find us?"

"My money is still on the-" and Yui stopped speaking, like she had seen a ghost.

"What?" asked Bellagio.

"Don't turn around," said Yui with a lowered voice, making some random hand and finger gestures in the air, like she was coordinating a battle plan. "But right behind you, on the ridge where the P40 was, is a CV.33."

"Seriously?" Bellagio asked.

"Give me a second..." said Yui. She turned to her crew and said in a raised voice, "Keep working on the tracks, guys, I'm going to contact the commander."

Yui climbed inside the tank. Bellagio did her best to look bored by resting her chin on her hand, propped up by her elbow on the rim of the cupola. She desperately wanted to turn around to look at the CV.33.

A moment later, the SU-76I's gun started moving. It aimed up at the ridge and fired, giving the girls the fright of their life.

The CV.33 tried to make a mad dash for it, but was caught off guard. Yui was no gunner, however, and the shot didn't land where she wanted. It struck the ridge line and once again the ground crumbled beneath the intended target.

The little tankette wasn't as lucky as the P40, and it fell down the almost vertical cliff face.

" _That has to be the tankette that's been watching us_ ," Bellagio heard Yui say over the radio.

"Right, that's it," Bellagio growled, "These little snakes have pushed me to my limit! Emgie, turn the tank!"

" _Wh-what?_ " Yui poked her head out of the cupola, radio headset in hand. " _What are you doing?_ "

The tankette flipped and turned several times as it fell down to their level. The crew inside were not comfortable. But with adrenaline coursing through their veins, the driver was quick to get the tankette moving again as soon as it landed back on its tracks.

"I'm going after them!" Bellagio responded, and as the Nahuel starting to pull away, Bellagio waved a finger at Yui as she shouted, "Get your track fixed ASAP and go find Friedrich! Tell her we lost the P40! NOW COME HERE YOU LITTLE FU-!"

"Language, sis."

Yui blinked as she watched Bellagio's Nahuel give chase to the little tankette. Stopping her was futile.

"What do we do, Yui?" asked Airi.

"Exactly as she said," Yui responded, "We get the track fixed and then go find Friedrich."

A couple of minutes later, while she was helping her crew attach the new track parts, Yui and the others heard an engine revving. Looking in its direction, they saw the P40 coming out from around the curving cliff face, heading west back into the forest, completely oblivious to the fact the SU wasn't eliminated yet.

"Oh no..." Yui croaked.

* * *

Friedrich's eyes stung from lack of blinking as the M6 rolled slowly through the forest. She didn't want to take any chances. She was looking at every bush, every hill, every parting in the foliage, behind them, _anywhere_ a search and destroy force could be hiding or watching them from. Over and over in her head she weighed the pros and cons as to whether she should let the Chaffee go in front or behind, or if she should recall a tank to come and help protect the flag tank.

Her knuckles were white from gripping the rims on the hatch. Her heart was beating faster. The calm before the storm was unbearable. She held her breath repeatedly to anticipate the need to bellow an order.

And then she heard it. An engine. She already had two engines rumbling in her ears, but she'd been hearing them for so long now they had become white noise. No, this engine she was hearing through the noise was different, and distant.

She darted her head from left and right.

"Where...?" she whispered to herself. "Where are you?"

With so much noise, she couldn't make out which way it was coming from. Left? Right?

It was both.

From either side, some ways into the forest, the shrubs were being disturbed.

"Yeka, aim right! Sakura, aim left!"

The two turrets turned to aim towards their targets. Friedrich couldn't see the approaching tanks, which only worried her more. They were definitely coming, then why couldn't they...?

It occurred to her.

"Aim low! Tankettes, approaching from both sides!"

Yekaterina depressed the gun and fired. The shell ripped through the foliage and got a lucky hit on a CV.33, evidenced by the shower of smoke and pyrotechnics. Over in the Chaffee, Yuno wasn't so lucky with her blind fire.

"Dammit! Bastard tiny tankettes the size of golf balls!" she cursed.

A CV.33 leapt out of the bushes on the left and fired uselessly into the side of the M6, its pathetic machine gun rounds pinging off. It swerved and drove parallel to it and then made a sharp turn into a drift, and fired at the Chaffee as it slid across the ground.

" _Aah!_ " Sakura squealed, " _Friedrich we're under fire!_ "

"Then fire back!"

The Chaffee reversed with its incredible speed. Mai worked frantically to get another shell loaded into the Chaffee's gun. Yekaterina turned the turret as quickly as she could, waiting for Nelson to say the magic word 'Up'.

The CV.33 straightened itself, shooting the Chaffee with a few more glancing shots before disappearing into the woods.

" _Phew_ ," said Sakura, " _Lucky we survived that!_ "

Friedrich wasn't convinced. Sending in two tankettes to take out a Chaffee guarded by an M6 was too risky.

Suddenly, from the right, a CV.33 leapt out of nowhere.

"Yeka! Shoot it!"

The CV.33 shot at the Chaffee a few times before weaving through the gap between the M6 and Chaffee. It turned to be parallel to the flag tank and disappeared into the woods like the first.

" _What is going on? I thought you shot that one?_ " asked Sakura.

"Probably just a glancing shot that didn't eliminate the tank." Friedrich theorised, based on the Ooarai vs Anzio footage she watched. "Right now, they're baiting us, trying to break our formation. Sakura, turn around, and reverse as we continue. I want your rear guarded by mine."

" _Ooh la la, Friedrich!_ "

Friedrich rolled her eyes.

" _But you're asking Allison to drive blind! She can't see backwards!_ "

"Then you're going to have to direct her. If those tankettes come back, they're going to try shooting you in the back. You're a light tank, and even MGs from that close will eliminate you."

" _Tch. Fiiiiiiiine!_ "

Allison spun the tank 180 degrees and reversed it, almost ramming the back of the Chaffee into the rear of the M6 with the lack of rear sight.

"Now, keep your gun aimed forwards and-"

" _Your forwards or my forwards?_ "

"Yours. Keep it aimed forwards and shoot any tank you see."

" _You got it!_ "

" _Friedrich, come in!_ "

"Oh, gott. What now?" Friedrich groaned. "Friedrich here. What's wrong?"

" _This is Yui! The P40 disabled our track! It's heading west back into the forest!_ "

"What about the Nahuel?"

" _They've gone looking for the CV.33 that's acting as a recon unit. We were attacked by a Semovente before we ever even saw the P40. They always seem to know where we are!_ "

"So the P40 is heading in our direction?"

" _Yes, possibly even with a Semovente._ "

The desperation of their scenario dawned on Friedrich. She had two tanks missing in the forest subduing a single enemy, one tank with its track broken several miles away, another tank going AWOL, and it was just her to protect the flag-tank while two tankettes circled them with two more enemy vehicles heading in their direction.

"This... this isn't good..."

* * *

 **A/N:** **Phew. Writing tank battles is _hard_. You have to think about the positions of everyone involved, and you need to come up with two plans to work against each other that could plausibly sound like they were made by their respective commanders without making either one seem too stupid.**

 **Let me know what you thought of this one. It's nowhere near perfect. The pacing is way too fast, but at 7k words I didn't want to make the chapter any bigger.**


	7. We're Fighting Our Cousins! III

**Chapter 5: We're Fighting Our Cousins** **III** **!**

* * *

"Pepperoni, where are you? You were meant to join back up with me!"

" _Sorry, Duce, but I'm a little busy right now! We got spotted by the Nahuel and now they're hot on our heels!_ "

"Dammit, Pep! I told you to dart away as soon as the Semovente distracted them!"

" _I couldn't help myself, Anchovy. I wanted- DRIVER WATCH OU-_!"

Static.

"Pepperoni?" Anchovy shook the mic. "Pepperoni, come in! Dammit!"

" _Will she be ok_ _ay_ _?_ " Carpaccio asked, who was following the P40 in her Semovente. The other two CV.33s had reported they were engaging with the flag tank in the middle of the forest, so Carpaccio and Anchovy were on their way to intercept and eliminate them.

"So long as she doesn't lead them back to us, we'll be fine. The numbers are working out for us so far. One Semovente is effectively subduing two of theirs, two tankettes are keeping the flag tank busy and we've left one of them eliminated on the edge of the map! One more CV.33 keeping another of theirs out of play is a trade I'm willing to make."

" _Seems like victory is within our grasp._ "

"It doesn't, doesn't it? I must say I'm a little disappointed."

" _Don't say that, you'll jinx it!_ "Carpaccio giggled.

"Maybe I will," Anchovy chuckled. "But so far, they're completely incompetent. They're going to have to start pulling some real weight to pull this one out the bag. It looks like for them it is... checkmate."

"... Duce, was that meant to be a casino joke?"

"Oh yeah, checkmate is a chess move, isn't it?"

* * *

Friedrich had ordered both guns to be pointing east. Then she ordered them all to aim west. Then staggered.

" _Honey, please make up your mind._ "

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I just can't figure out where they'll be coming from."

" _Tankette_ ," Sakura warned, spotting a CV.33 leap out of the bushes for the half a dozenth time now. Like every time before now, it appeared, shot a the Chaffee, and vanished. It was too zippy for anyone to hit at this range. " _They're going to get a lucky shot eventually._ "

"I'm sure that's exactly what Anchovy wants us to think. The moment we break away from each other to retaliate she's going to spring her trap."

" _So what? We wait here for the Semovente and P40 to eliminate us from somewhere we can't see them?_ "

"She has a point, Friedrich," said De Brak, "All it will take is two tankettes to give a report on the Chaffee's position to make an accurate blind shot from afar."

Friedrich pinched the bridge of her nose and thought on it. She came to a decision and spoke into the radio once again.

"Okay. Sakura, you have some new orders."

" _Give 'em to me hot!_ "

"The moment another tankette finishes its next assault on you, bolt it. Far away. Get as far as you can from any tanks that could hurt you."

" _Allison, now's your chance to show off your driving!_ "

Friedrich took a deep breath. The plan was risky. She figured that if the P40 was willingly heading toward them, this would be her only chance to eliminate the enemy flag tank. But the only reason the P40 was coming was to eliminate their own flag tank. So if she could just get the Chaffee out of there, the odds might just tip in her favour.

" _Tankette!_ " Sakura said, a little more excitedly than last time.

The CV.33 did as it always did. It appeared, shot, and vanished.

And that was Sakura's cue.

"Allison, back her up!"

Allison grinned and, keeping the Chaffee in reverse, she weaved around the rear of the M6 and floored the pedal. Friedrich stared in awe as the Chaffee reversed at a speed faster than her M6 could move forward, with Sakura giving a final wave to her commander.

* * *

" _Duce! The Chaffee is retreating!_ " came a transmission from one of the CV.33s Anchovy had harassing the flag tank.

"Merda, I was afraid this would happen! And we're so close too!"

" _What should we do?_ "

"Go after it, eliminate it if you can. Do _not_ lose sight of it!"

" _And the M6?_ "

"Carpaccio and I will deal with the M6. If we can break the only chainlink keeping that mess of a team under control, our victory will be secured."

Anchovy changed the channel.

"Carpaccio. Your Semovente will charge the M6, but try to keep your distance, I don't want you eliminated. Don't try to kill it, just let it know you're there. While the M6 is focused on you I will give it a wide berth and attack from behind. She shouldn't know we're coming."

Anchovy had no idea that the SU-76I had still been operational and legally allowed to continue establishing communications with its command tank.

" _One hot distraction coming right up, Duce!_ "

* * *

"So with the flag tank making a dash to nowhere, what are _we_ doing?" asked De Brak.

"Let's head back to meet up with the Eight of Spades," said Friedrich, "We might even come into contact with the P40 on our way."

De Brak turned the tank and started taking them east. The journey back was quite uneventful. Friedrich got updates fed to her by Custer from the other teams on the struggles they were in. The SU-76I even reported they had fixed their tracks. Friedrich told them to head west to meet up with them.

"Friedrich, enemy tank!" Yekaterina warned. She had been keeping her eyes glued to the optics and aiming the gun ahead of them.

Friedrich looked ahead and saw a Semovente making a bee line towards them.

She wasn't falling for it.

"Yeka, shoot a warning shot. Don't worry if you don't hit it."

"Yes, Commander."

As Yekaterina aimed so the shell wouldn't be completely off target, Friedrich grabbed the swivel mounted machine gun on the turret. She took vague aim just to the right of the Semovente and fired, keeping the trigger held and sweeping it around.

Yekaterina fired her shot, and the Semovente swerved to avoid it, just as Friedrich had wanted. It veered off its course toward the M6 and started orbiting it from afar.

After sweeping 180 degrees, Friedrich was afraid she might've made a bad call. But finally she found what she was looking for. The tracer rounds of the machine gun started ricocheting and sparking off of something in the shrubs.

"Those are some awfully sturdy leaves. Yeka, seven o'clock, shoot my target."

Nelson was daintily emptying the gun of its shell casing, careful not to spill a single drop of tea from the cup in her left hand. She used her knee to hoist the next shell into the gun, guided by her free hand. Taking a sip from her cup, she kicked the shell in.

"Up!" she cooed.

Friedrich continued firing the gun in bursts to act as a sort of laser sight for her gunner. Luckily enough, too, because the bullets stopped hitting whatever it was Friedrich had found. A quick adjustment of the gun revealed that the target was moving.

"This is either the P40 or a deer wearing plate armour," Friedrich quipped in her attempt to be funny.

Yekaterina aimed, biting her lower lip. She was trying to shoot a target she couldn't see. The tracer rounds provided by Friedrich could only help so much. Were they ricocheting off of the front? The rear?

Yekaterina took her chance and fired, but the shot completely missed.

With the M6 now without a shell to fire, the P40 took its opportunity and quite literally jumped out of the bushes, as it ramped off of a small mount of dirt and rocks.

"Oh, scheisser!" Friedrich hissed, "De Brak, get us out of here!"

De Brak put the tank into reverse and tried to back off. With the heavy tank's slow speed, trying to turn on the spot and running away was pointless, it was more effective to keep their sturdy front armour facing any incoming fire.

Friedrich frantically looked around and saw the Semovente giving their M6 a wide berth. It was going to flank them from behind.

"Th-this is it..." Friedrich whispered to herself. She closed her eyes and frowned to herself, "Anchovy got me..."

"Up!"

Yekaterina drew blood as she bit her lower lip, her hands shaking while gripping the trigger on the gun. This was it. The flag tank was in front of her, and this would be the shot that would save them.

"Firing!" she yelled hoarsely.

The P40 braked sharply to line up its own shot. Yekaterina missed.

She closed her eyes and leant her forehead against the optics and waited for their fate.

Friedrich stared down the barrel of the P40 and waited for the command tank's elimination.

Suddenly, the entire P40 rocked on its suspension, as a shell from somewhere in the forest struck the end of the barrel and ricocheted off, producing sparks and a ringing echo.

"Eh?" Friedrich questioned.

" _Friedrich, watch out behind you!_ " came the voice of Yui over the radio, " _The Semovente is sweeping you!_ "

Friedrich blinked, and saw the SU-76I charging like a rhino from the east, making a dash for the P40. Glancing to the left, she saw that the Semovente was indeed almost completely behind them, with the M6 continuing its reversing.

"De Brak, turn right slightly!"

De Brak did as she was ordered, and the M6 kept turning its rear away from the Semovente. If the Semovente had had a rotating turret, it might have been able to get a kill shot on the side armour.

Whilst Airi was still getting the next shell loaded, Yui swallowed her pride and ordered Maria to charge the P40. The hesitant but obedient driver did as she was told and made a dash to clip the rear of the enemy tank.

The P40, desperate to get its precious flag out of this sudden turn of events, started driving forward again, turning slightly to swerve around the oncoming SU.

"Yui, leave the P40 to us!" Friedrich said over the radio, "Get behind us and eliminate this Semovente!"

Yui relayed her orders to Maria, and Maria changed her course to get behind the M6.

"De Brak, stick her in forwards and pursue the flag tank!"

The M6 rolled forward and - with some adjustments to the turning - was now on the P40's heels. The SU shot past the M6 and took a potshot at the Semovente, but missed. The P40 was pulling away from the M6 with its superior speed, but it started to slow down a little to stabilise its gun to shoot at the M6.

The shots either missed or ricocheted off the M6's armour. The P40 also had to swerve from side to side to avoid shots from the M6, which also slowed it down. The M6 was able to match its speed.

"Geez, it's getting hot," with the sun, the tank exhausting it's heat and her agitation, Friedrich was cooking. She undid the buttons of her pelisse, letting it flap in the breeze. The black fabric contrasted with the brown uniform underneath.

The P40 drifted off to the side to avoid a large tree, but ended up in the bed of a pond, which was sloppy with mud. The sticky substance clotted its tracks and caused it to drop significantly in speed, to the point the M6 was gaining on it.

Nelson gave a sigh as she looked at the last dribble of tea at the bottom of her cup. "Oh dear," she said with a shake of her head. "Ladies, it's that time now."

"Yes!" De Brak whooped.

"Finally," Yekaterina mumbled.

Nelson reared her head back as she down the last drop, before placing her cup on her saucer on a nearby shelf.

"The cup is down," she said, flexing the fingers in her now free hand.

Friedrich smirked and rubbed her hands together. "Say that for me again, Nelson."

"I repeat. The cup... is down."

* * *

"Dammit, I can't see well enough!" Anchovy cursed.

She popped the hatch open, and grabbing the sides of the cupola, she pulled herself up to stand on the commander's seat. Mud was being kicked up around her and little flecks of her were coating her hands. She turned to look at the M6 catching up with them and caught the eye of Friedrich. Anchovy's sneer disappeared and turned straight faced.

The two commanders stared each other down. Both were staring at the other with their piercing gazes, faces devoid of emotion, complete focused. They mentally prepared themselves as their minds frantically started to plan for their showdown.

* * *

"Seven seconds!?" Airi gasped in disbelief, as she heard the shot from the Semovente that just whizzed past them. "That took their loader _seven sec_ \- just who does she think she is?!"

Over in the Semovente...

"Gunner, keep firing!" Carpaccio ordered as she shoved the next shell into the gun. "We have the ammunition to spare, we can whittle them down and eventually get a lucky shot. Up!"

And the Semovente fired.

"Now they're down to _six_?!"

"Airi, sweetheart..." Akisa said, peering through her optics, subconsciously controlling her breathing as if she were holding a real rifle, "Please calm down, you slow down when you're-"

"I slow _down_?!" Airi screeched, and Akisa recoiled in her seat. "I suppose you'd rather have _their_ loader in here then, wouldn't you?!"

"No... I-"

"Well, if it's speed you want, it's speed you'll damn well get!" she elbowed the loader's hatch open and leant out. "COME ON THEN, BITCH! LET'S SEE WHO'S THE BEST!"

"Oh dear."

* * *

Hijiri had her eyes glued to the map. She guided Sume by orders of "left", "right" and "keep going" when Sume warned a junction was coming up. The aerial photos they had of the area gave a perfect bird's eye view of the trenches. With a marker pen, Hijiri noted down with a question mark the last area the Semovente was spotted, based on the visual description given by the Valiant team.

"Red Joker just spotted the Semovente going around a right angle turn, with no other corners in sight," Youmi said, a hand cupped to her ear to get as much volume as she could from the headset she was wearing.

"Gotcha," Hijiri wiped off the last mark and added a new one. There was only spot in this network of trenches where your only option was to turn right. It led down a stretch of trench that had another right turning, and Hijiri could see a path leading up to that T-junction the Semovente would have to pass through. So all they had to do was turn... "Sumi, turn left at the next junction, and then right shortly afterwards. Azumi, get ready to fire."

"Yes, commander!" the two said in unison.

Sumi was a little harsher on the turning now the target's location was known, caution was not as necessary.

"Hijiri," Youmi spoke up, "What if the Semovente is heading towards us?"

"Then we'll just have to shoot first!" she said with a sweet smile, "And we'll end up blocking it in if Red Joker comes up from behind."

"Turning!" Sumi warned, and the Sherman DD turned right, the frame of its screen scraping against the dirt wall.

"I see it!" Azumi cried as she saw the Semovente driving past the turning, looking like a duck in a shooting gallery. "Firing!"

But with no time to aim the shot, it sailed forwards and simply struck the wall behind it. A tiny avalanche of dirt and rocks caused a small mound to pile in the trench. The shell gave the crew inside the Semovente a right fright, but they kept going.

"Dammit," Azumi growled.

"Don't worry, Azumi, we'll get them next time," said Hijiri.

" _Nice try, ladies!_ " came the voice of Aika over the radio, who was right behind the Semovente and now also driving past the turning, " _But we're going to be the ones to get 'em!_ "

Hijiri smiled. "Sumi, back up. We'll try intercepting them."

* * *

"There it is!" Bellagio shouted, pointing, before realising how useless that gesture was. "Emgie, right a bit! I can see it in the shrub!"

Emgie didn't take her foot off the accelerator as she made the turn. Everyone felt their weight slump to one side as the tank turned.

The CV.33, noticing it had been spotted, darted out of the bush and tried to make its getaway.

"Ocean, shoot it!" Bellagio cried.

With this speed and Ocean's lack of experience, the miss was inevitable.

"Dammit, Ocean! I want that tankette!"

"I can't help it, it's too fast!"

"Then we'll just have to run it over! When we kill it, I'm getting daddy to buy me a tankette to hang on my wall!"

"That sounds absaloutely-"

"Shut up, Mirage, no one asked you! Wait... where did it go?!"

* * *

The P40 and M6 were cruising parallel to each other through the woods. The P40 was still in the stretch of mud and being slowed down to the heavier M6's speed. The M6 swerved the other way to avoid the tree and was now travelling across flat dirt, crushing many shrubs beneath its mighty treads.

The two tanks exchanged shots, resulting in misses. At their commanders' orders, both drivers veered closer to the other, the gap between them closing fast. The P40 tried braking to slow down to let the M6 pull ahead to get behind it.

De Brak wasn't falling for it and simply pulled away again. She also hit the brakes and with the tank's heavier weight it stopped very quickly. The P40 shot ahead and Yekaterina fired. The shell glanced against the P40's side.

"Custer!" Friedrich said sternly, as she watched the P40 pull away.

"Yes, commander?"

"I can't focus. Help me concentrate with some music."

Custer threw the headset off and grabbed her bugle. Leaning out of the radio operator's hatch, the battlefield was filled with the sounds of straining engines, the occasional gunfire, and a very enthusiastically played _Funiculi, Funicula_.

* * *

"They're still following us!" squealed Sakura as she saw the two CV.33s make a side-by-side formation as they followed the Chaffee.

"Not for long!" Yuno sneered as she brought the gun sweeping around. She didn't even stop the gun to take the shot, it was just as soon as she saw the yellow of their armour. The shell was destined to miss.

"That was useless Yuno, they're still coming!" said Sakura. "Allison, get us out of here!"

Allison's teeth were chattering and her heart thumping as the pressure started to build on her to get the flag tank to safety.

Mai the loader spoke up as she prepared the next shell. "Yuno, if you don't start actually aiming that gun, this next shell is going up your ass!"

"I can't tell if you're kidding or not..." said Yuno.

"Do you want me to be?"

"Now's not the time, ladies!" Sakura cried. "Yuno, shoot a CV!"

Yuno actually tried this time to aim the gun. The CV.33s were following so closely that the constant rocking of the gun from their high speed on the uneven ground didn't affect her aiming that much.

"Firing!" she called, and the Chaffee's gun exploded. The shell struck the CV.33 right on target and it went flipping into a bush. "YES! TAKE THAT YOU ANNOYING LITTLE-!"

"Allison, turn right!" Sakura called. "Take us through that clearing, we need open land to outrun them!"

"O-on it, commander!"

* * *

"Up!" cried Airi, and then grumbled to herself, "Ten seconds, not fast enough!"

"Maria, try to keep to the sides of the Semovente," Yui advised, "The harder you can make the gunner's job to shoot us, the better."

Maria tried to swerve the SU around the Semovente as asked, but the Italian tank had other ideas. It counter swerved and almost intercepted the SU, but the two tanks just scrapped alongside each other. Yui's heart almost stopped. It had been like watching a train whiz past your window.

Shots were fired from either side as the two tanks connected, but the jolt of the collision caused them both to miss. The two loaders were already preparing the next shell.

"Never in a million years will I let _anybody_ think they can outdo me," Airi growled to herself, "My speed is what got me on this team in the first place! UP! Eight seconds!"

"Up!" Carpaccio punched the shell into the gun breech. "Driver, get in front of them so we can get a shot. They shouldn't be ready to fire just-"

The SU-76I erupted, and a shell just missed the Semovente, skimming over the top of it.

"Che cazzo?!"

Airi cracked her knuckles and then punched her fist into her palm a few times. " _Faster_..." she growled to herself.

* * *

"Take the shot!" Aika ordered. They had just caught the Semovente in a straight line. Aika had been very patient to wait for an opportunity to fire, and now her excitement had piled up too much. "TAKE THE SHOT!" she repeated, bouncing up and down.

Keiko was spending too much time lining it up. "I can't while we're moving," she said.

"Tch! Then brake!"

Chiyo braked the tank, and the Semovente was now pulling away at a fast speed. Keiko aimed, and fired, but the shell fell just short, kicking up dust and dirt just behind it.

"Dammit, Keiko! Now it's getting away!" Aika hollered.

"I-I'm sorry, I thought I had it..."

Chiyo didn't need to be told to get the tank moving again. But in her desperation to catch back up with the Semovente, her foot slipped in her stilts.

"Oh no!" she cried, "My books have fallen over!"

"Can you still reach the pedals?" Aika asked.

"J-just," Chiyo strained, stretching her leg out to touch the pedal, but she was having to slouch in her seat so much she was effectively blind.

With that little distraction, the Semovente had pulled quite far ahead. It turned left, and a few seconds later, the Valiant took the same turn, but the Semovente was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did it go?" Aika asked desperately. "Chiyo, keep going!"

The Valiant kept moving, and after a few feet, Aika saw that there was another left turning coming off of this corridor.

"It probably went down there," Aika wondered aloud, "Chiyo, try-"

 _BANG!_

Aika almost jumped out of her skin as a cannon erupted behind them at near point blank range.

"What was that?" Ume asked.

"The tank's not moving!" Chiyo reported.

Aika then saw a little white flag sprout up from a tiny hatch next to her. She turned around and saw the Semovente just behind them with a smoking barrel.

Aika hung her head, and sent out a transmission. "Red Joker to Three of Diamonds, we're..." she sighed sadly, "We're out."

* * *

"You're _out_?" Youmi asked in disbelief over the radio to the Valiant.

" _Yes, we are. Red Joker... out..._ " while it was technically illegal to make radio transmissions after your tank was eliminated, the judges allowed those rules to be bent by letting tanks let others know when they were eliminated or report that they were okay in the case of violent knockouts.

"Red Joker is out," Youmi told Hijiri.

"Damn..." said Hijiri,"This just got a lot more complicated."

"How did they even shoot them?" Akira asked.

"Probably just led them around a corner and shot them," Azumi shrugged.

"No, that can't be it," said Hijiri, "The Semovente has a fixed gun. They would either have to be facing the Valiant or get behind it."

"So they turned on the spot and shot at the Valiant as they were coming around a corner, or something," Azumi concluded.

"The Semovente is too wide to turn in these tight corridors," said Hijiri, "They _could_ have done some reversing and turning on one of the corners, but that would take too long. The Valiant would catch up with them and fire."

"So they got behind them?" asked Youmi.

"Yes, and to do that, they need to know where the Valiant is. They haven't got a second tank running around like we do-I mean did," with a puzzling look on her face and a theory in her head, Hijiri popped the hatch open and stood up on her commander seat. Peering around, she just caught the sight of a ducking figure on the higher flat ground.

"Yep," Hijiri confirmed as she sat back down, "They've got someone acting as a scout, probably relaying our every move to the Semovente."

"Little tricksters!" Azumi snarled, and then punched a fist into her palm, "Want me to go deal with them?"

"Azumi," Akira giggled, "That would be very barbaric, and-"

"That's not a bad idea," said Hijiri, and Akira gave her a look of shock. "There's nothing in the rulebook that mentions what happens when two opposing crew members encounter each other outside of a vehicle."

"You read it front to back, didn't you?" Sumi asked over her shoulder.

"Twice," Hijiri nodded. "So, Azumi, I want you to go out there, _do not_ hurt them, but... discourage them from making anymore radio transmissions."

Azumi chuckled evilly.

"Call me, and stick your phone in your pocket. Tell me everything you can see that the Semovente is doing, while also trying to stop their scout from doing the same."

"You got it, boss!" Azumi said and leapt out of the loader's hatch.

"Youmi, can you go gunner, please," Hijiri asked, "We won't be needing a radio anymore," she finished saying while pulling out her buzzing phone. She answered it.

"Hello, who is calling?" she asked exaggeratively.

" _Good afternoon, you are listening to the Brawling Hour!_ "

* * *

The P40 had superior speed over the M6, and could easily escape it if Anchovy had ordered to, but the proud commander was banking her victory on the elimination of Roulette's command tank. If she fled, she would only be hunted down again. If the M6 couldn't find her, it would regroup with the Chaffee.

Plus, if the command tank could be eliminated, the one thread holding them all together would snap and their organisation and command would be in chaos.

But the M6 was being incredibly stubborn. The P40's 75mm gun wasn't powerful enough to penetrate the M6's sloped front armour.

Anchovy furrowed her brow angrily, watching the M6 advancing towards them slowly, shrugging off yet another shell. Friedrich was unbuttoned, her back straight, face stern, hands on the rim of the hatch and eyes locked on Anchovy.

When the M6 fired, its backfire caused Friedrich's pelisse to flap violent in the wind, with her loose golden hair joining in with the flailing. Her hair was forming clumps and was sticking to her dust coated face from sweat.

Anchovy hated the commander's composure. She reminded her of a certain other...

"Driver, keep circling them! We _will_ penetrate their armour and that girl's ego along with it!"

Over in the M6, Friedrich was also giving orders, constantly trying to adapt to the situation.

"De Brak, do not let them get behind us," Friedrich ordered in her clear and flat commander's voice. Now she had her goal present before her with no other interfering forces, she had forgotten all about her subordinates and her worries along with them. She could be mistaken for a real drill sergeant. "If they're not retreating then they mean to see this through to the end. One of us is not leaving this encounter alive."

"One of us will mark the end of the match," Nelson added.

"Exactly," Friedrich agreed. "And this match ends here."

* * *

"Did we give them the slip?" asked Pepperoni's driver in a hush.

"It seems like it," Pepperoni whispered back.

"Why are we whispering?"

"I don't know. It just feels appropriate."

Pepperoni had never felt more scared in her life. With sweat pouring down her face, she shook as she peered through the visor to look out for the Nahuel that was pursuing them. A few minutes ago they had received a transmission reporting that the SU-76I had engaged with the P40, and Anchovy was not happy.

Pepperoni felt responsible. As the reconnaissance unit, it was meant to be her job to warn the flag tank of any incoming enemy forces, and now she was having to flee for her life. The commander of the Nahuel, whomever she was, was making her feelings towards Pepperoni's tankette _perfectly_ clear. Her screechings and threats only made Pepperoni want to flee more.

"When was the last time we saw the witch?" asked Pepperoni's driver.

Pepperoni stifled a small chuckle. "The Witch of Roulette? I think she flew past us about a minute ago."

"The Witch of Roulette sounds too generic. How about the Craps Witch?"

"The Ace Witch?" Pepperoni looked at the driver with a grin.

The driver snapped her fingers, "Rocket Queen!"

"Huh?"

"When you get an Ace and a Queen in poker!"

"Someone's done their research."

"I may or may not plan to visit Roulette at some point," the driver blushed.

"So, we'll call her the Rocket Quee-"

"THERE YOU ARE!"

"Ah, merda! It's the Rocket Queen! RUN!"

Neither of them even saw the Nahuel, they just heard Bellagio. The driver slammed her foot on the throttle and the CV.33 ploughed straight into the front of a speeding Nahuel, it's gun erupting over their heads, narrowly missing the tankette as they ducked under it.

"Back up!" Bellagio ordered, but the tankette had the same idea. It reversed straight back into its hiding spot, and just kept reversing deeper into the foaliage.

"They're getting away again!" Bellagio cried. "I will catch you, you irritating little tykes!"

* * *

"We've got two tankettes on us again!" Sakura warned the rest of the Chaffee crew. "Looks like the third found us."

"Two more hot tank corpses coming up!" Yuno sneered.

"That's really gross," said Fiona, the radio operator.

Sakura bent at the knees to ask Fiona directly, "Fiona, have you been able to get in contact with anyone else?"

"Nobody, Sakura," Fiona shook her head, "They either don't responding or..." she paused.

"Or...?" Sakura pushed.

"Well, putting it politely, the commander of the Terry told me to... 'go away'"

Sakura tutted. "I hate that woman."

"Firing!" Yuno shouted, followed shortly afterwards by, "Another one bites my ROCK HARD GUN!"

"Now you're just saying whatever comes to mind," said Fiona.

* * *

The P40 was running circles around the M6. If it got too close, Yekaterina would take the shot and possibly eliminate them. If it orbited from too far, it wouldn't penetrate the M6's armour. De Brak was turning the tank on the spot, making sure the M6 was _always_ facing the P40.

The two tanks kept taking potshots at each other, but none of them eliminated their target. The M6 was too strong, and the P40 was too fast.

Suddenly, Anchovy had a complete change in tactics. Taking Friedrich by surprise, the P40 turned and made a charging dash for the M6.

"What is she _doing_?" Friedrich asked.

Yekaterina readjusted her sights, trying to find the P40. She found it and kept her crosshairs on it as best she could. But as it got closer, it became harder to keep focus.

Once it was about thirty feet away, Yekaterina tried a lucky shot, but the shell buried itself into the dirt. The P40 fired, but their shell was also off target. Only slightly, however, as the shell struck and buried itself into the armour, exploding its pyrotechnics but not falling apart. The M6 now had a shell sticking out of its front.

"That was scary..." Friedrich muttered, scared to death that that shell might have been the kill shot.

The P40 dashed past them. The two commanders locked eyes as they passed.

De Brak and Yekaterina tried to bring the tank's front and the gun around to face the P40. Anchovy didn't want to wait around for the next shell and ordered the driver to get some distance again.

Twice more Anchovy ordered a dash through the M6, in a desperate attempt to get close enough to penetrate the front armour. Twice more Yekaterina lined up a shot, but was thwarted at just the last moment. Twice more the P40 ricocheted shells off the front or side of the M6.

"Something's going to have to happen soon," Friedrich muttered to herself, "Or they're going to get the lucky shot."

* * *

The Nahuel was swerving from left to right as it struggled to try ramming the CV.33, which was using a combination of braking and throttling to orbit it as they both kept speeding forwards.

"Now they're just mocking us!" Bellagio growled, as she followed the tankette with her eye. "Emgie, keep a straight line! I want to-"

Her words were cut short at the sudden jolt and near-whiplash as the right tread hit a ramp that Emgie hadn't been paying attention to. The tank tipped sideways, producing a squeal from Bellagio as she grabbed onto the hatch.

"EMGIE!" Bellagio screeched.

After clearing the ramp, the Nahuel's weight brought it back down again onto its tracks. If it had tipped anymore, it probably would've fallen onto its side.

Bellagio started looking around again for the CV.33, "Now where did that-?"

Her pupils shrunk in horror as she watched the CV.33 leap over the ramp that they had just cleared at full throttle. It soared through the air and with a very unpleasant crash, landed on the rear of the Nahuel.

Anyone else commanding the tank might have seen this as an opportunity to cower inside their vehicle.

But Bellagio was furious. Her face wrinkled into an expression of absolute anger, her eyes flashing daggers and her teeth grinding together.

"Ocean! Bring the gun around!" she ordered.

Pepperoni and her driver saw Bellagio's face, unfaltered by their presence and they started to panic. Pepperoni couldn't open fire, because that would be deliberately shooting at a participant and would be breaking the rules.

At Pepperoni's order, the driver went into reverse and tried to flee off of the Nahuel. Seeing what they were doing, Bellagio followed her previous order with "Emgie, reverse!"

The CV.33 slid off the back of the Nahuel, but with the tank also reversing it pushed against the tankette and caused it to tip over backwards.

"Now forwards again! Ocean, do _not_ mess this up!"

The Nahuel rolled forwards a little bit, just enough for Ocean to be able to get the gun depression in to see the tankette's underside. Pepperoni and her driver, executing the procedure they had practiced a hundred times before, fell out of the tankette and went to push it back over.

But when they saw the Nahuel just in front of them, with its gun aiming directly for them, they both fled, screaming.

Ocean opened fire, the clean shot striking the underside of the CV.33, and from the smoke and pyrotechnics, grew a little white flag.

* * *

Azumi clambered up the mud wall. The ground here was an island surrounded by trenches on all sides, making a plateau of mud with a few shrubs dotted around. Azumi could easily make out a figure wearing the grey military Anzio uniform with black boots squatting behind one.

Azumi flexed her fingers and headed for them. Her brow boots squelched in the mud, but the terrain didn't slow her down too much.

Seeing her approach, the Anzio girl popped her head up to get one good look to confirm what she was seeing. Azumi saw she had a phone held to her ear. The girl's eyes widened in fear and she started babbling something on the phone.

Azumi dashed after her.

"Give me that phone!" she shouted.

The girl stood up and started backing off, trying to give herself as much time and distance as she could while she looked around at the features of the trenches and read off some coordinates to whoever was on the other end of the call.

Azumi managed to catch the end of, "Target has deployed enemy unit to disrupt communications! Target bearing coordinates-"

"Hijiri! They know where you are!" Azumi cried at her breast and reached out for the girls' phone.

The girl held up her hands to fend her off, turning to the side to hold her phone away at arm's length. She shouted at it, "Target bearing coordinates 14-7, heading west!"

"Gimme that!" Azumi wrapped her arms around the girl and stretched as best she could to grab the phone. "Hijiri, turn around, they're coming for you"

"Target has been given orders to-!"

"Oh, stop that, we're not even the real military!" Azumi groaned, grabbing the girls ankles and pulling them out from under her. The girl collapsed with a squeal into the mud.

" _Macaroni, what's going on?_ " the phone asked.

Macaroni grabbed a handful of mud and flung it in Azumi's face. She hadn't been expecting it and was caught completely by surprise. Her face was plastered with mud. She cried out and started clawing at her face to scrape it off.

Macaroni clambered to her feet, filthy with mud. She dashed over to the south trench where the Sherman was in and looked around for it. When she spotted it she said into the phone, "Target has changed course and is heading east towards point 16-7. What's your position?"

" _12-8_."

"Head down corner 16-8 and you will have the target in your sights."

Azumi overheard as much as she could while trying to clear her eyes. She didn't know what coordinate system they were using, those numbers didn't match anything on the maps. They could've been some custom made coordinates to confuse the enemy.

She frantically looked around for any sign of the Semovente to warn Hijiri of its position. Sure enough saw exhaust fumes coming out of the ground to the north.

"Hijiri, they're onto you! Watch out on your left!"

"Target is aware of your presence!" Macaroni desperately called out. "Stop advancing!"

The two tanks spotted each other as they passed by their respective turnings and exchanged shots. Both missed.

"Target is-" but Macaroni was cut short by Azumi grabbing her arm and trying to wrench the phone out with her her other hand.

Macaroni tackled Azumi and both girls fell to the ground with a _splat_.

"Target is continuing on their course!" Macaroni cried out desperately to the air hoping it would hear her as the girls wrestled for the phone.

"Hijiri, stop and reverse!"

Suddenly Macaroni shouted in Italian, and Azumi didn't understand a word of it.

"Oh, now _that's_ just unfair!" she complained. "Hijiri... just keep an eye out."

" _What am I meant to do with that information?_ "

"I'm working on it!"

Azumi's face was buried into the mud as Macaroni pressed down against her head. The girl clambered to her feet, untangling her other arm from around Azumi and began sprinting off.

Azumi gasped for air and wiped her face.

"If this gets any more violent, we're going to be disqualified," she said to herself. A different plan of attack was necessary.

Standing back up, Azumi took her phone out her pocket and held it to her ear. She followed Macaroni in her dash to the east, the direction the two tanks had wandered off to.

With a running jump, the two leapt over a trench to the ground on the other side, both of them barely making the jump. They continued dashing and came to a top at the edge of another trench, both of them having spotted their respective tanks by exhaust fumes.

Azumi kept trying to shout out warnings and orders, but Macaroni countered every single one of them by giving some of her own in Italian. Azumi was getting frustrated.

" _For God's sake, Azumi, I can't do anything with this information, it's too conflicting!_ "

"Well, I don't know what you want me to do!" said Azumi, "Because _someone_ is listening to everything I say!"

" _Then give me orders and I will do the opposite. You say left, I go right. You say stop, I turn around. You say carry on, I brake._ "

Azumi suddenly wanted to desperately tell Hijiri how much she loved her as a commander, but so that no suspicion could start arousing, Azumi just went straight into giving her next order, and adding a flair of panic to it, "Turn left!"

Macaroni gave an order, and now the two tanks were on a course in opposite directions. Azumi heard Macaroni utter, "huh?".

Macaroni said something in Italian.

"Hijiri, stop."

The Sherman started turning on the spot. Azumi smirked.

This went on for a while, with Macaroni hearing conflicting orders and trying desperately to keep the Semovente up to date on the Sherman's position. She became so distracted on the Sherman, she had forgotten to keep an eye on the Semovente's position in relation to the enemy's.

The two tanks were moving parallel to each other in side-by-side trenches, at the end of each they turned right onto the same corridor.

"Hijiri, speed up."

The Sherman slowed down.

The Semovente reached its corner and turned right. It saw that this new stretch was blocked halfway by the Valiant, still waiting to be recovered by the recovery team. Having noticed what was going on, Macaroni started to panic.

"Turn around!" she cried, forgetting to speak Italian, "Turn around now!"

"Hijiri, do _not_ turn right!"

The Sherman sped up and took the right turn, and Youmi saw the rear end of the Semovente in her sights.

"Youmi, fire!" Hijiri ordered.

Youmi wordlessly pulled the trigger, and made a clean shot as the shell struck the Semovente. As the Semovente slumped and crawled to a halt from the destroyed engine, the white flag popped up, marking its defeat.

"Booya!" Azumi pumped her fists into the air.

" _Humbleness in victory, Azumi,_ " Hijiri warned her.

Azumi lowered her arms, and awkwardly cleared her throat. She turned to Macaroni and offered her hand.

"Well played," she said with a smile.

Sulking, Macaroni shrugged her shoulders and took the hand shake.

* * *

Yui gripped the sides of the hatch as Maria brought the SU-76I around for another joust with the Semovente. Airi was on a consistent seven seconds now and was getting frustrated. Yui knew it was because she was starting to get tired. This needed to finish quickly or she was going to injure herself. Airi would never admit it, but she couldn't raise her arms above her shoulders at the moment.

The tanks revved and darted toward each other. Yui wanted Akisa to save her shot for an opening. The two tanks swerved to give each other some space to fly past each other.

"Maria, left! Akisa, fire!" Yui ordered as she saw the Semovente did a surprise drift beside them to aim the gun at their side.

Maria yanked on the brakes and brought the front of the SU facing the Semovente. Akisa took her own shot.

The air between the two tanks erupted in a shower of pyrotechnics and shrapnel as the two shells, with only a few feet between the tanks, collided mid-air.

Yui reflexively shielded herself from the explosion, but winced in pain as she felt a sharp sting in one of her knuckles. She saw she was drawing blood from it, and something shiny was sticking out. A piece of the exploding shell must've flown into it.

"Son of a-"

"UP!" Airi desperately croaked, her voice racked with exhaustion, "Th-three seconds!"

"Akisa, take the shot!" Yui bellowed.

Akisa never needed the order. Her optics were already on the tank, the crew inside confused as to what just happened.

Akisa fired.

And the Semovente was no more.

* * *

"Wait, _what_?!" Sakura cried, "Where did that tankette come from?"

"There's another one?" asked Mai, "But that makes four. They should only have three!"

"Firing!"

Sakura watched carefully as Yuno once again hit a tankette. It was struck by the shell, flipped a few times, and before it had even finished rocking onto its side the two girls inside literally spilled out. They scrambled back up and shoulder barged the tankette back onto its tracks. The driver leapt back inside like she had done this manoeuvre a hundred times before, and the gunner leapt onto the tankette as it started moving and crawled back inside, her feet scraping across the moving ground.

"Oh now that's just unfair!" Sakura whined.

"What's happening?" asked Yuno.

"They're so light they're just shrugging off the rounds."

"Well that's dumb!"

"What are we going to do?" asked Allison.

"We just keep shooting them until they stay down!" Sakura ordered.

Many more shells were fired, one after another. Some hit, others missed, but for everyone that hit, the tankette was just flipped back over.

"They just keep coming back!" said Yuno as she took another shot.

"Why won't they die?" Sakura squealed.

Then she heard the sound of snapping metal. After taking so much punishment, a link in the tracks finally snapped from a lucky shot from one of the tankette machine guns. The wheels dug themselves into the mud, and despite Allison's attempts to get it moving again, the Chaffee couldn't budge.

"Oh no!" Sakura cried.

"This is it, we're finished!" Fiona wailed.

"We let Friedrich down," Sakura sulked, as the CV.33s circled around them like vultures.

* * *

"They're coming around for another!" De Brak warned.

"This is it!" Friedrich grunted. "This will be the joust that ends it all!"

With her heart thumping, Friedrich could only watch and rely on Yekaterina as the P40 made another suicide dash. Yekaterina aimed, and just like every time before, she waited until the P40 was about thirty feet away... and took the shot.

Learning from her previous experiences, Anchovy saw the attack coming. She placed her bets on Yekatrina waiting for a fourth time to get within that thirty foot range, and ordered her driver to slip out of her optics.

It worked. Yekterina pulled the trigger just as the P40 was swerving out of the way. The shell shot straight through the flag on the back of it, causing it to spring violently on its stem.

"NO!" Yekaterina cried.

"NELSON! ONE MORE SHELL!" Friedrich bellowed.

Nelson frantically started loading the next shell, with the P40 braking harshly into a drift. De Brak tried to turn the M6 to keep up with the P40 but it was just too close and going too fast. Yekaterina turned the turret as fast as she could. Friedrich was waiting for that one magical word from her loader as she watched the P40 skid to a stop behind them with its gun aiming straight at their rear.

"UP!"

"FI-!"

 _BANGBANG_

Friedrich's senses were assaulted as two cannons went off simultaneously. Her ears were left ringing and her eyes and nose were swiftly filled with smoke spewing from the engine.

She could only stare in distress at the white flag that shortly popped out beside her hatch.

That was it. Their elimination. For the first time since they started fighting other schools, Friedrich had allowed her M6 to be taken out before they secured their victory. And by the flag tank, no less.

Anchovy truly was amazing.

Friedrich felt like she could cry. But she held it in.

But as the smoke of the engine cleared, Friedrich saw that the cloud was not just the efforts of her own M6. Just six feet away, the P40 was also billowing smoke.

And now Friedrich really did want to cry. The knot in her throat tightened and tears welled up, her voice gasping for breath as she saw the most beautiful sight a Tankery commander could possibly hope to see.

The enemy flag tank's flag sharing its flapping in the breeze with the white flag marking the tank's elimination.

" _The Roulette vs Anzio match is over!_ " came the announcement, " _Victory goes to Roulette Academy!_ "

* * *

Neither Anchovy nor Friedrich left their tank. They both had to sit down in their commander's seat to hold their head in their hands to reconsider what had just happened, but for different reasons.

For Anchovy, she had to wonder where it all went wrong. The plan was going so smoothly: separate Roulette by baiting them and eliminate them one by one until only the flag tank remained. It just all came down to some of the surprising and unpredictable tactics they were able to pull out at the last moment, and Anchovy felt frustrated.

For Friedrich, she had to contain her urge to squeal. And to fend off Nelson trying to fling herself on top of her for a hug. Roulette had managed to beat one of the regular competitors of the national tournament. One of the big dogs!

Over in the system of stream trenches, it had only been two minutes ago the Semovente had been eliminated. Aika was standing on top of the Valiant and screaming at the heavens in celebration. Ume tackled Keiko with a hug which made the latter uncomfortable.

Hijiri and Aika shared a high-five, while Sume clambered into the main compartment to give her girlfriend Youmi a celebratory kiss. Azumi pumpd her fist and tackled Macaroni for a hug, and their feet slipped on the mud and they fell to the ground again with a scream.

Sakura gave a relieved "Oh, thank God!". After that scare-fest with the tankettes destroying their tracks, she didn't even have the energy to feel smug as the Anzio students stopped their CV.33s and sat up looking sulky.

The SU-76I crew heard the news while travelling in the direction the M6 and P40 had headed to try meeting back up with them. Yui couldn't help but give a quick fist bump, hoping nobody noticed. Airi flung her arms around her girlfriend Akisa, squealing in excitement, her voice hoarse from all shouting "Up!" so much and timing her reloads.

Bellagio was standing on top of the CV.33 they had just destroyed, shouting at the fleeing girls, "You will never mess with Roulette again!".

"Bellagio!"

"What, Ocean!"

"We won!"

"We did?"

"Yes, we won!"

Bellagio laughed manically at the sky.

* * *

Once the vehicles had been recovered and rendezvoused back at the stands, everyone was desperate to get out of their vehicle to personally congratulate Friedrich on a job well done. The Valiant crew shared a ride with the Sherman by sitting on top of it while their tank was still being lifted out of the ground by crane.

So Aika was the first to speak to Friedrich, jumping off the still moving Sherman. She bounded up to the M6 and pointed at the unbuttoned commander.

" _You_!" she said, "You, Freddy, are one awesome commander!"

Friedrich was taken aback.

"Th-thanks, Aika, but once we'd all been split up, I didn't really do anything..."

"Are you kidding?" asked Hijiri, who'd jumped out of the Sherman to follow Aika, "Friedrich, your command was what kept us going! You provided the morale everyone needed to see the match through! Everyone wanted to win and tried their best because if they didn't, that would mean letting you down."

Friedrich blushed and stammered to find the words. She was quite confident in her abilities and liked to always think she was a decent leader, but she'd never actually heard anyone else speak the words out loud before. Not to this degree, at least.

"Friedrich!" Bellagio called out as their Nahuel drove past. "I can't wait for the next match! If it's anywhere near as fun as that!"

"Fun?" asked Ocean, "You were screaming like a band of harpies!"

"SHUT UP OCEAN!"

Friedrich laughed behind her hand.

"Honeyyyyyyyyy!" Sakura cooed, running up beside Aika and Hijiri. "That was amazing, but please _never_ let us fend for ourselves again like that! I think I just had five years taken off my life!"

"I'll try not to, Sakura," Friedrich smiled.

"Well..." said Yui as she approached, "By no means a flawless performance. Communications ceased, you lost control of some of your units, some questionable tactical decisions were made..."

Sakura, Hijiri and Aika were giving her the dirtiest of looks.

"Still, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Heck, if we did, we might have lost," she said, resting her hand on her hip.

"Thanks, Yui," said Friedrich, "You are right. It wasn't perfect, but I'm just glad we won."

Friedrich looked ahead and saw the gathering of Italian tanks. She easily recognised the figure of Anchovy with her twin-tails clambering out of the P40, and she was marching toward them.

Friedrich climbed out of her M6 and went to meet her halfway. Along with Anchovy came a very pale looking Pepperoni and a glum looking Carpaccio. Anchovy, however, seemed all smiles.

"I cannot say anything else other than congratulations, Friedrich," said Anchovy, taking Friedrich's hand for a quick shake, and giving her a kiss on each cheek, something Friedrich was _not_ prepared for! "I must say, you really surprised me towards the end. Roulette seems like a force to be reckoned with."

"They are when you rile them up," Friedrich said with a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of her head. Pepperoni mumbled something under her breath.

"You'll have to forgive my subordinates, they feel a little bummed out by the loss. Something about the Fastest Loader in the East and a Rocket Queen."

Friedrich cocked an eyebrow, completely oblivious.

"But I have to say, Friedrich, I think you'll be able to take your school far."

"You think so?"

"I do. Do you know how I know?"

Friedrich shook her head with a puzzled frown.

And then Anchovy pointed at her face.

"It's your eyes," she said, "You have the same eyes as Maho Nishizumi. When you looked at me during that match, I could see it all. Your determination, your sharp mind and, scariest of all, your ferocity."

Friedrich didn't know what to say. None of the other commanders she had spoken to had ever said something like that. They had either wanted to get the outroductions over with quickly or refused to speak to her from their lack of grace in defeat. And while her teammates had approached her to tell her she was a good commander, hearing it coming from an opponent - and a respected opponent at that - was something else all together.

"Take care, Friedrich. I hope to see you again soon. Maybe in the 64th National Tournament."

Friedrich nodded with a smile.

"Hey, Friedrich!" Bellagio called. "We're getting together for a group photo!"

"That's her!" Pepperoni cried, pointing. "The Rocket Queen! Duce, save me!"

"Pepperoni! Get off me!"

* * *

The next day, Friedrich placed her new framed photo on her desk at home. The commanders of the six tanks that participated were standing at the back on stools, while their crew members sat cross legged in front of them. In the middle of the rear rank, Friedrich was holding up the Sensha-dou flag with one arm, and had her other draped over the shoulders of Anchovy, who'd partaken in the photo at Friedrich's request.

Everyone was smiling. From the happiest of the bunch - Akira, Hijiri - to the ones you'd never exect to smile - Keiko and Youmi. Even Anchovy was smiling, having accepted her defeat long ago. That was one of the most precious parts of the picture to Friedrich, that Anchovy could also smile. Because Tankery was a sport. A sport that they could enjoy.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **And there we have it, Roulette vs Anzio.**

 **This was incredibly fun to write and a pain to manage. The goal of this battle wasn't to necessarily be a revolutionary tank match, but to show off all the characters that have been featured so far - along with a few others - in a different scenario, since with Roulette it's mostly about the characters. I felt that getting to know them team-by-team and then having them interact for this match was really cool. I love this fan project.**


	8. Seven of Diamonds

**Chapter 6: Seven of Diamonds**

* * *

 **A/N: It's a bit of a long'un, but this is one of my favourite chapters of anything I have ever written.**

* * *

"You should've seen them, Daddy!" Bellagio laughed, waving her fork around at the dinner table, "When they fell out of that tankette, their faces were _priceless_!" she held her face in her hand, trying to fight back tears as she recounted the memory that was obviously far funnier to her than it was to anyone she told it to.

On the other end of the dinner table, Mr Benedict picked at his food with his fork as he said boredly, "Yes, sweetheart, I know I should've. This is the third time you've told me."

Mr Benedict was dressed in a white buttoned shirt with a red tie, his usual attire. He was a little on the large side, as he didn't need to move around much as part of his work and liked to indulge in fine food and wine. His neck was quite pudgy, and when he stood, the underside of his potbelly could be seen peeping out from his shirt. He claimed his shirts were shrinking in the wash. The girls claimed he was just getting fatter.

One of the overhead spotlight lamps had a bulb blown out, casting him in a shadow of complete darkness while the other girls sat comfortably in the light.

"Oh, but it's just so funny to tell, Daddy!"

"I'm glad you had fun Bell, but maybe we could talk about something else at last?"

"Eurgh. Like what?"

"Well, Mirage's next show will be on in a few weeks, won't it dear?" he asked his daughter, and Bellagio lost all interest, giving a silent humph with a shrug of her shoulders and leaning her face against her fist.

Mirage was sitting on the side of the long dinner table next to her twin sister Emgie like she always did. Gently placing her fork on the table, she placed her hands on her lap and said, "Y-yes, daddy, it is."

"And it's going to be live at the SA-Grand theatre, too!" the man said proudly, "That's quite the achievement, don't you think?"

"It certainly is!" said Emgie with a beaming smile as she wrapped her arms around Mirage, "My sister is going to be on stage in Roulette's biggest theatre in front of thousands of people!"

Mirage started physically shaking in her seat.

"Tone it back a bit, Emgie," said Ocean, turning an invisible dial in the air. Ocean was sitting across from the twins.

"It's nothing to get too nervous about," Mr Benedict chuckled, "After so many successful performances, you'll pull this one off without a hitch."

"Yeah," scoffed Bellagio, "Maybe she'll talk properly for once."

"That's enough of that, young lady!" Mr Benedict boomed in his "work" voice, slamming the end of his fork onto the table.

If anything could get Bellagio to back off, shut down, or quiver in fear, it was her father's "work" voice. It was the voice he used when he needed to be intimidating. And Mr Benedict could be _very_ intimidating.

Bellagio shrunk in her seat, cleared her throat and said, "Sorry, Mirage."

"Isn't this show the one with the Maus Haus?" asked Ocean, trying to restart the conversation again as quickly as possible. She hated awkward silences.

"The band?" asked Mr Benedict. "Mirage, you didn't tell me you would be performing with the Maus Haus!"

"It never crossed my mind," said Mirage.

"They're one of my favourite bands," Mr Benedict chuckled, "It's so nice to see youth appreciating the music of old and trying to show it off to others."

The Benedict family finished their dinner and turned in for the night. As it was Friday, Mr Benedict went to bed earlier than the others in preparation for what he knew the morning would be like.

* * *

Bellagio was one of the last of the four girls to wake up, and always started her morning with a shower. She had her own room, with an en-suite bathroom. Surprisingly, it was Mr Benedict's suggestion - and not Bellagio's demand - that she have the room with a bathroom. He figured that her sharing a bathroom with Ocean would be absolute chaos.

Bellagio was scrubbing away in the shower, whistling _Funicili, Funicala_. She had become somewhat obsessed.

She was Mr Benedict's eldest daughter; only by a couple of years, granted, but she had the forceful personality of someone far older. You always knew when Bellagio was in the room, even if she didn't say anything; her presence was radiating.

She kept up appearances by trying to be as stunningly beautiful as she could, for a number of reasons. For one, playing hard to get with the boys was fun, especially the obedient ones. She certainly had the... ahem... "voluptuous" features that could make them drool and squirm. She also felt like being the more better looking of the girls in the family exerted a sort of 'alpha female' status amongst her sisters, and Bellagio liked to be in control.

Being the weekend, Bellagio was enjoying one of her infamous half-hour showers. She took time to pamper herself in preparation for the coming week, and that meant washing her hair twice, scrubbing herself with skin softening shower gel, painstakingly covering her face in a face mask to ensure her skin was spot and oil free, shaving pretty much everywhere that grew hair; the list of necessities went on.

* * *

Emgie was showered and dressed, sporting a pair of jeans and a white shirt. She was down in the kitchen making herself some breakfast. She felt like having something cooked this morning.

Emgie was one of the daughters of Mr Benedict, and Mirage's fraternal twin sister. She was the shortest of the sisters, including Ocean. Her hair was blonde, and was neck length, save for the tufts around her temple, which she grew out and plaited.

The family butler came into the kitchen, and saw the tin of beans, block of cheese and the grater, as well as Emgie pulling herself up onto the kitchen worktop to reach into one of the higher cupboards.

"Miss Benedict, at it again I see," he said.

"Yes, Minamoto," she said, "And don't ask if I would like you to make breakfast for me. The grand Emmie needs to make a grand breakfast!"

"But, miss Benedict, we have this discussion every week," the butler was keeping a bulletproof face of professionalism, but was smirking on the inside, "You wish to make yourself breakfast, but you're always left stuck at a roadblock."

"That's _so_ never happened!" she pouted.

"First it was the sushi, then the omelette, the pancakes, and then the full English. Miss Benedict, when will you settle for a simple bowl of cereal?"

"Minamoto, it's just beans on toast!" she said, opening the cupboard at last to pull out a saucepan. "Nothing will-"

And then there was an almighty cacophony of clattering as pots and pans fell out of the cupboard. Emgie clamped her hands to her ears to shut out the noise, her eyes squeezing shut.

She opened one eye once the noise stopped, and saw the butler still standing in the kitchen doorway, awaiting orders he knew were about to come.

"Hey, Minamoto, are you busy?"

* * *

Ocean was making her way down one of the Benedict mansion's grand hallways. She was just finishing clipping up her overalls after having stolen a shirt from Emgie's room. She always thought Emgie had nice taste in cute clothing, and while her shirts were a bit too small for Ocean, that was just how she liked it, they were like crop tops for her. And crop tops with overalls made from some cheeky skin shots from the side.

Ocean only cared about her appearance because Bellagio cared so much about her own. Because Bellagio tried _so_ hard to look nice, Ocean tried to make it look like her own attractiveness was effortless. She knew that would get completely under Bellagio's skin. So something casual like a pair of overalls and a crop top were just what she needed to one up her.

Aside from her casual fashion sense, Ocean was the second tallest of the girls after Bellagio, which she silently resented. Her eyes were a deep and captivating dark green, and absolutely filled with mischief. Her hair was a bob of fluffy, soft to the touch and a dark brown, bordering black.

This morning, just like any other morning on the weekend, was a morning for games, pranks and giggles. She got up early so she could be ready before anyone else, there were more opportunities for mischief that way.

She knew Bellagio would be showering for at least another quarter of an hour. So, sneaking into her room, she scoped out her surroundings. She could hear the shower running in the en-suite, as well as Bellagio whistling completely out of tune.

Ocean crept through Bellagio's bedroom to the bathroom, her bare feet not making a sound on the tiled floor. She pushed open the door and let out a miasma of steam, and was almost physically assaulted by the sudden waft of hot air that followed.

Fortunately for Ocean, Bellagio's shower was covered by a shower curtain, as opposed to a glass border; that would make her game much more challenging. She saw Bellagio's pyjamas in a heap on the floor mat, and her fresh clothes in a folded pile beside them.

Clothes wouldn't do. Ocean stole Bellagio's favourite pair of socks last week, and she had just taken Emgie's shirt. She needed to leave her mark some other way.

On a hook on the other end of the bathroom, near the shower, was Bellagio's towel. One of her pink, Egyptian cotton ones, freshly washed by Minamoto just yesterday.

Perfect.

With the gushing water roaring and Bellagio continuing to hum away, Ocean took a step into the bathroom. The floor was wet from the steam and chilly to the touch. Not wanting to overstay her welcome, she took steps in wide strides. She took another one and placed her foot on the mat, and reached out for the towel.

But she wasn't thinking about what she was doing. She put too much of her weight onto her rear leg, and from leaning forward so much her foot slipped out from under her on the wet floor. She let out a quick gasp of surprise and clamped her hand down on the nearby sink to stop her fall.

And Bellagio's singing had suddenly stopped.

* * *

Mirage stood in front of the full body mirror in the room she shared with her twin. She was dressed and fed, and now everyone else had had a chance to get up, she felt it was a good time to practice her lines. Hopefully they wouldn't hear her and she wouldn't die from embarrassment.

As her father had said, the theatre club was organising a performance and it was due to debut soon. They had partnered with the jazz club to make a noir musical, hence why the Maus Haus was featured to perform. Mirage was playing the role of the damsel that would surprise everyone at the end with her sudden flare of independence as she saved the lead character from danger. The theatre club was quite pleased with this role, as Mirage - with her stuttering nervous voice and non-threatening appearance - fit the role perfectly.

Mirage was terrified. Not of the early scenes, she knew she'd do well with those. It was the scenes in the final act where a lot of the attention would focus on her and the lead character she was worried about. She was used to playing background or side characters, like bartenders and maids. Not lead roles.

Which was try she was trying to get some practice in now. She really liked practising in front of the mirror. She was self concious about the way she moved her mouth when she spoke, so it comforted her that she could keep an eye on it while she practised.

Mirage was one of the daughters of Mr Benedict and the twin sister of Emgie. She didn't have Bellagio's beauty, or her twin's extroverted personality, or Ocean's mischievous cuteness. She was a bundle of nervousness, and was very self concious of a lot of things about herself. She didn't do anything with her hair, she just grew it out and kept it combed, as she was afraid of doing anything with it. She had taken to wearing a clip in the shape of a red diamond from a pack of cards, as gifted to her by her twin. But not because she felt like she looked any nicer wearing it, but because she didn't want to hurt her sister's feelings if she didn't.

She held the script in her hand, peered at it for a moment, and then looked up again into the reflection of her own eyes. Gritting her teeth slightly and taking a deep breath, she muttered, "N-n-no! Th-that's enough of-of that! Stop wh-what you're-"

She stamped her foot in frustration. She was enunciating too much, she wasn't acting with her lips, she couldn't stop the stutter and she was standing stock still like a statue clutching the script.

She rubbed her temples. This was all just par for the course. A regular occurrence and frustration in her rehearsals. She just had to grin and bear with it. She always pulled through in the end.

Mirage held the script in her hand, peered at it for a moment, and then looked up again into the reflection of her own eyes. Gritting her teeth slightly and taking a deep breath, she tried again.

* * *

Ocean quickly made a grab for the towel and pulled it off the hook. The shower curtain was flung to the side and there was Bellagio, still wearing her face mask and a razor in hand.

"Ocean..." she growled.

Ocean fled like a rabbit. She scrambled to pull the door open and dashed out the room, the towel flapping behind her.

"OCEAN!" she heard the cry of a Banshee behind her.

Ocean giggled to herself as she came to a slide to open Bellagio's bedroom door, but terror stole her playful laughter from her as she heard the sound of wet, slapping footsteps behind her. Not wanting to stick around much longer, she made her escape out the room. Giving only the briefest of glances back, she caught a glimpse of a furious, naked Bellagio before she ran down the hall.

Half laughing, half whimpering, but all excited, Ocean sprinted down the hall. Bellagio was coming after her, screaming profanities and all manners of threats, and leaving a trail of water.

Ocean grabbed onto the handrail of the stairs to pull herself to a stop, and hopped onto it and slid down to the ground floor, holding the towel up to make it flap in the breeze.

" _OCEAN!_ " Bellagio cried again.

Ocean drifted around a corner into the grand hallway, and nearly ran straight into someone. Skidding to a halt, she looked up at the family butler, Minamoto. They shared a knowing glance, and Ocean slipped behind him.

Bellagio was soon right behind her, having rapidly descended the stairs.

"Ocean, I swear to _GOD_ I will f-!" and she shrieked at the sight of Minamoto and scrambled to cover herself with her arms.

With no sense of panic, Minamoto turned on the spot, placed a hand in front of his eyes and said calmly - like this had happened a hundred times before - "Good morning, miss Benedict."

"Mi-Minamoto! Claim my towel from this juvenile this instant!"

"Miss LeMarc," Minamoto said into his hand, "Would you be so kind as to hand miss Benedict her towel back?"

Ocean liked Minamoto, he had treated her like a member of the family the day she had moved in. So, not wanting to make his life difficult now Bellagio had got him involved, she sauntered over to Bellagio with a smirk, handing out the towel.

Bellagio snatched it from Ocean's grasp and quickly wrapped it around her.

"You better watch your back," Bellagio muttered behind gritted teeth, to an unaltered Ocean.

"Now, ladies, if you would be so kind as to evacuate the halls. I think I have some mopping to do," said Minamoto as he turned back around, his hands behind his back.

Giving Ocean one last stare that could disable a Maus if looks could kill, Bellagio turned and went back to her room.

Ocean and Minamoto gave each other a glance. As they passed by each other to go their separate ways, they shared a quick fist bump.

* * *

Mr Benedict sat up in his bed with an annoyed sigh, his eyes hidden from view by his sleep mask with the Roulette logo printed on the front. The curtains were shut, letting in only a slice of the morning sun in, casting a strip of light across the bed sheets.

A lie-in was impossible. He had been suddenly awoken by the crashing in the kitchen, and a minute later of trying to get back to sleep he was jolted back awake by Bell's continuous shrieks. And now Mirage was practising her singing in the room below him and it was carrying through the floor.

He held his head in his hands as he contemplated what he was going to do about these girls.

* * *

Later that day, the girls were all relaxing in the mansion's lounge. Bellagio sitting in her armchair, flicking through all of her social media apps, catching up on the morning's activities.

Ocean was sitting upside down on another armchair, her legs draped over the backrest and her head hanging. She was engaging in some quick Blackjack on the Roulette Academy app. She'd developed a simple card counting system of her own and was putting it to use. It certainly wasn't anything that was going to win her hundreds of chips, but it was good enough that she could beat all the idiots.

Emgie was slouching in a bean bag in the corner, sorting out her phone's photo album after it had recently been filled up from all her selfies.

Mirage was catching up on some more script reading that she'd fallen behind on since the Anzio battle had taken up a lot of her time.

Minamoto came into the lounge carrying a tray of tea, cola and juice.

"Ladies, your requested beverages," he said.

One by one he walked between the girls, bending at the waist to lower the tray so they may take their drink. Bellagio took her tea with naught but a smile and a slight nod of the head. Ocean flipped herself upright and took her glass of cola with a "Thanks, Minamoto." Emgie took her juice with a "Thank you," and Mirage took her own tea with a small, sweet smile.

"Oh my God, guys!" Emgie suddenly cried, waving her phone around, "Look what I found!"

Ocean and Mirage flocked to see, while Bellagio stayed sat with her tea.

"Oh, I remember when that was taken!" said Ocean, "We completely forgot about it!"

Bellagio sighed, curiosity winning her over. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's the day we got the Nahuel," said Mirage.

Bellagio frowned curiously and went over to see. Sure enough, it was a photo of the four of them either posing in front of or sitting on their Nahuel.

"When was that taken?" asked Bellagio.

"The day we started the club," said Emgie, "So... a year ago?"

"That certainly was a rollercoaster of a day," Ocean smiled

* * *

 **1 year ago...**

The room was dark. The windows were closed, and the lights were left turned off. A safety precaution, in case any cameras were brought into the room.

In the middle sat a large, round table, with oak rims and a velvet green surface. On the table, strewn about, were Roulette Academy chips. The chips were made from high quality Italian plastic, with the Academy's logo stamped beautifully on the front; with half red 'R' on one side and half a Roulette bowl on the other.

Also atop the table were drinks in crystal glasses, as served by the butler. These drinks were being enjoyed by a cast of men sitting around the grand table, all finely dressed in suits of either grey, black, white or patters too fancy to fit description. Regardless, though, all the suits were of the highest quality.

The room was dark. Save for one spotlight in the ceiling that cast a cone of light onto the surface of the table to illuminate that which rested upon it. All the men were cast in darkness, their identities hidden from each other.

And from the shadows, a pair of arms, the elbows of such rested upon the able with the fingers laced together. A golden signet ring shone in the light.

And as his butler took stand next to him with an empty tray after performing his duties, Mr Benedict spoke.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming today. I hope your drinks are to your taste."

A ripple of content murmurs filled the room.

"Wonderful. Then if everyone is prepared, we may begin."

And with a snap of his fingers, the butler stepped forward. Producing a white cloth from seemingly nowhere, he placed it on top of the table, easily within view. It clunked as it made contact.

The butler removed the cloth with swift grace, stepping back into the darkness, and underneath was a handgun. This captured the interest of every man in the room, and they all shuffled in their seats to eye it.

"This is the gun that was used to shoot Tony last week," Mr Benedict said matter-of-factly, his voice slick and smooth, as if he were completely sure of every word he said capturing the respect of everyone in the room. This was a man who knew what he was talking about and knew what he was doing. "It was during one of this ships expeditions to Las Vegas. Now, I don't like going to Vegas, and some of you may guess why..."

That earned some sniggering chuckles from the ones in the know.

"... but when I do go back home, I do not like it when one of my lieutena- no... when one of my friends is shot. So, here's what we need to do. Starting tomorrow, we-"

Suddenly the double doors on the opposite end of the room Mr Benedict was sitting flew open, spilling in a sea of light and causing glaring blindness to the men inside whom were acustomed to the dark.

"DADDY!"

"Oh no..." Mr Benedict's hands detached from each other to catch his head as it fell forwards in despair.

"Daddy!" Bellagio repeated, ignoring everyone else in the room and making her way around the table.

"What is it, Bell?"

Bellagio hoisted herself up onto the table, sitting on a few chips in the process. She was dressed in her night-going outfit, with her hair tied into a bun, a pair of pantihose with a micro-skirt and a pink shirt with a large stylised hole cut into the back. She certainly captured the attention of a few of the younger men in the room.

"I want a puppy."

"Wh-b-d... a _puppy_?" Mr Benedict had completely lost his cool confident tone and was now speaking with the shrilly, cracking voice of a broken man.

"Yes. I want a puppy."

"Bell, dearest, you already have two horses, a cat and a tank full of sharks on the fishing deck that you never visit. Why do you want a puppy?"

"Because puppies are cute. I want something I can play with in the house."

"Isn't that what the cat's for?"

"The cat's never here! And it's got fat. It doesn't want to play. And can't lie on it. When the puppy grows up I can use it as a pillow that loves me back."

"Wh... how big a dog do you _want_?"

"German Shepherd? Malamute? Ooh, I know! A tosa!"

Mr Benedict nearly started crying.

"Sweetheart, Daddy's working right now. Can't we talk about this some other time?"

"But I want a puppy _now_!"

"Bell, you're about to go out! And I couldn't get you a puppy now even if I wanted to!"

"Why not?" she whined.

" _Out!_ " he bellowed.

Bellagio sulked with that horrible pout she'd mastered wearing since she was three. She pushed herself off the table, spilling a few of the chips on the floor. She stomped toward the door and wrenched it open.

"For God's sake, turn a damn light on!" she got her last word before slamming the door shut.

* * *

"Tea, sir?"

"Yes please, Minamoto," Mr Benedict replied.

It had been a couple of hours later. The meeting had been had, he had said everything he wanted to say, and now Mr Benedict was in his private study. Now that he studied much in here. He had other people to do all of his accounting and logistics. "Study" was more of a euphemism for "escape room".

He sat in his armchair near the window that reached from floor to ceiling. He had a good view of the rising full moon from here. Minamaoto - the only person allowed in Mr Benedict's study - had come in with a teapot, a cup and some sugar. He knew all to well his master would be in need of some stress relief after what had happened during the meeting. The master was already anxious from Tony being in hospital.

Mr Benedict sat in his chair and rubbed his temples with a sigh.

"Perhaps, sir, you would like me to reschedule your weekly massage session for tomorrow morning?"

"That's actually a good idea, Minamoto. See to it."

"Of course, sir."

Mr Benedict took his cup of tea and his newspaper.

"Have you ever wanted kids, Minamoto?"

The butler's bulletproof professional demeanour was temporarily cracked from the sudden, unexpected personal question.

"I cannot say I have, sir. My loyalty has always been to the Benedict family. Not children that I do not have."

"Well, take some advice from me. Find yourself a woman that doesn't want children. Their joyous things, and my children mean the world to me, but I wouldn't mind being left ignorant to what could've been."

"If you pardon my saying, sir, but isn't it just miss Bellagio that is the brunt of the problem?"

"Perhaps. Emma and Mirage are little angels. Ocean is..." he frowned.

"A different kettle of fish?"

"Is that what the English say?"

Minamoto nodded once with closed eyes.

"Yeah, she's that," he tutted and sucked air through his teeth. "I suppose it is Bell. She's just so... so..."

"Spoilt, sir?"

"Yeah. That. Maybe it's my fault."

Minamoto said nothing.

"What do you think I should do?" Mr Benedict asked.

"I do not believe it would be my place to suggest, sir."

"Oh, suck it up, Minamoto. You're just as much of a friend to me as Tony. I want your advice."

Minamoto pursed his lips as he considered his next words carefully.

"I believe sir, that some extra discipline need be taken."

"Yeah, but how?"

"Perhaps she should take up a hobby? She doesn't interact much with people at school. The only people she regularly interacts with are her sisters. Miss LeMarc is driving her to anger."

Mr Benedict nodded with a curious frown. "A hobby, you say? Good idea, Minamoto. I'll look into that."

"Would sir like anything else?"

"No thanks. You can take the rest of the evening off."

"You're too kind, sir," Minamoto gave one last bow before leaving the room.

Mr Benedict drank his tea as he perused his newspaper. While he read it, he wasn't taking any of the information in. His mind was distracted, thinking of ideas for ways to get Bell out of the house.

And then, he came to the sports section.

 _THE SECOND OPERATION BARBAROSSA_

 _After a win record spanning nine years, Kuromorimine Girls High School lost the finals match in the 62nd Sensha-dou National Tournament which saw them battling against Pravda Girls High School._

Mr Benedict looked up from his paper, straight at the moon. He had an idea.

* * *

 **Three days later...**

"Daddy, have I ever told you how much I love you?" Bellagio had a huge smile on her face as Mr Benedict led her through the mansion with his hands over her eyes.

"All too often, dear," he lied.

He took Bellagio outside.

"I'm going to call it Terry," she squealed.

"You ready?" asked Mr Benedict.

"Yes!" Bellagio said, bouncing up and down.

Mr Benedict removed his hands. Bellagio's beaming smile melted into a frown.

"What's... what's that...?"

Mr Benedict walked briskly up to it with a bounce in his step, swinging his arms merilly by his side with an excited chuckle.

"This, my dear Bell, is an Argentinian 1943 Nahuel D.L.43 medium tank!" he said, hugging the tank and stroking its hull.

"What's a tank doing in our drive?!"

"Because as of today, Roulette Academy is starting a Tankery club!" he said, flinging his arms open. "And this shall be the tank that you will command!"

Bellagio looked absolutely dumbfounded. An eyebrow was cocked and her mouth was hanging open at an angle.

And the mansion doors opened behind her, and her sisters spilled out, having been led here by Minamoto at Mr Benedict's request.

"Oh wow, its a _tank_!" Emgie cried and dashed toward it.

Mirage's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the vehicle. Ocean put a hand on her hip; she was surprised by its presence but somewhat fascinated.

"But I don't want a tank!" Bellagio exclaimed. "I want a _puppy_!"

"Bell, please dear. You need a hobby, and I can't handle a puppy in the house. This will be a nice thing for you to do with your sisters!"

"Daddy, do you even know how Tankery works?" Bellagio asked, "We need more than one tank! And I'm sure as hell not being the commander! You can't just thrust that responsibility on to me!"

"Don't you worry, dear. I've made arrangements."

* * *

 **The day before...**

Friedrich was sat down in an armchair with her legs crossed. She had a book in her hand that someone had brought to History Club about the development of the tank during WW1. In hand she had a cup of tea that another member of the club, Nelson, had made for her. It was delicious; being British, Nelson could make a "cracking" cup f tea, as she put it.

Other members of the History Club were lounging around, either constructing models, doing some reading of their own, playing historical board games or having friendly chats about periods of history they were mutually interested in.

Friedrich was pleased with the club she had managed to create. She'd petitioned with the school to commandeer a permanent room for the club to hang out in, and she'd been lucky to get members that were willing to contribute the the club by donating games and books. The club wasn't limited to just girls, there were plenty of boys, some of which hadn't hidden their feelings toward Friedrich. She politely turned them down.

Friedrich had never been expecting Mr Benedict to walk into the room. Not everyone knew his face, - some didn't even know the school was privately owned by one man - but Friedrich did. Out of habit she peered over her book when she saw the door to the room open in the corner of her eye.

And in that moment, in the time of a storm, the building suffered a power cut. The lights cut out suddenly, causing a few squeals from the members of the club, but the window was still providing ample sunlight, so the panic was short lived.

ot for Mr Benedict however. The high sun didn't cast enough light to catch his face. He was just a pudgy man who's head was swallowed by shadow.

Friedrich set her book and tea aside and got up to greet him, out of politeness.

"Afternoon, Mr Benedict," she bowed.

"Afternoon, madam. Are you by chance the maiden who goes by the name Friedrich? Love the jacket, by the way. I'm an admirer of war memorabilia myself."

Friedrich's face flushed red, at first because she was flattered by the kind words, but then because was nervous as to what he might be here to ask her.

"Yes, I am."

"Wonderful," he clapped his hands together, "From what I've heard, you're the owner of th rather successful history club, right?"

"Yes... I am..."

"So you have experience with administration?"

"Yes... I do..."

"I have a business offer."

* * *

And the rest, as they say, is history.

"I'm so glad Daddy got the tank instead of the puppy," said Emgie, uploading the group photo to the cloud.

Bellagio huffed.

"I still wouldn't have said no to one," she said.

"It's alright Bellagio," Ocean smirked, leaping back on to the armchair to get back to her gambling, "You don't have to admit you're actually pleased that he got you the Nahuel and you secretly really enjoy Tankery."

Bellagio balled her fists and her face scrunched into an expression of fury. She hated it when Ocean rode her high horse and acted like she knew everything. Especially when she was right.

* * *

"Tea, sir?"

"Yes please, Minamoto," Mr Benedict replied.

It had been a couple of hours later. Mr Benedict had bags under his eyes and was still in his dressing gown. Despite sleeping well and getting an early night, he felt completely drained. It was the way he was being woken up every other morning.

He sat in his study, admiring the reflections of the sun cast off of the blue sea through the window.

"I'm at my wit's end, Minamoto."

"This set-up does strike me with a sense of deja vu, sir, I must admit."

"Tankery was a good idea. It's got them out the house more but it's the _noise_! They're more ferocious to each other than ever! It must be the tanks. They're making them violent," he said it more as an observational statement rather than something he was disappointed over.

"Perhaps, sir, a bit of family bonding is in order?"

"You mean like a games night?"

"No, sir. I mean a holiday. When was the last time you went on a holiday as a family?"

Mr Benedict thought pensively for a moment, and then said, "Do you know, I don't even think Ocean was with us since our last."

He slumped in his chair as the realisation hit him. It really had been a long time since he took the girls - or even his wife - out to anywhere. He then started clapping his hands together excitedly.

"Oh, thank you, Minamoto! Ideas are flooding into my head already! Tell you what, you can have the rest of the day off!"

"Deja vu indeed, sir."

* * *

Mr Benedict flung the doors to the lounge open, fully dressed, face fresh.

"Girls, pack your bags! We're going on a holiday!"

"Oh yay!" whooped Emgie, "A grand holiday!"

Ocean and Bellagio's ears pricked up to the news.

"Is that a good idea?" asked Mirage, "What about school?"

"I _own_ the school!" said Mr Benedict, "A few days away won't do you girls any harm!"

"So, where are we going?" asked Bellagio, and she along with Mirage, Ocean and Emgie in order vocalised their wishful thoughts, "The Caribbean?"

"Greece?"

"England?"

"The Grand Canyon?"

"Egypt!" Mr Benedict announced with wide arms.

All four girls simultaneously raised an eyebrow.

"Specifically, we shall be admiring the scenes of war!"

"Oh great. It's not going to be another war museum tour, is it Daddy?"

"No, Bella dearest. Even better! We're going directly to the source! We are going to admire the battlefields that saw the genius minds of two of World War Two's greatest generals!"

The four girls gulped in anticipation.

"We shall be taking a tour across the desert where the North African Campaign took place!"

Bellagio dropped her phone. Ocean dropped her jaw. Mirage's eyes simply widened in horror.

"Yay!" Emgie leapt around. "A holiday!"


	9. Queen of Clubs I

**Chapter 7: Queen of Clubs I**

* * *

The trip to El Alamein was just as boring as the four Benedict sisters had feared. Mr. Benedict was loving it. He had shown up to the airport in a Roulette Tankery uniform he had custom made to his size; since the uniform was styled after the British World War 2 desert uniform he wanted to look the part for the El Alamein desert. The journey brought the girls closer together, in a sort of "we're all in the same sinking ship" kind of way, if nothing else.

Four days into the trip, and the girls were exhausted. They were taking their third trip into the desert, and despite plenty of water, they felt like they were carrying panzers on their back from the weight of the sun's heat beating down upon them.

Ocean had lost all care at this point and resorted to just trekking through the sands in nothing but a sports bra, the Roulette Tankery shorts and a baseball cap. The sweat was hell on her fluffy hair.

Bellagio had given up on complaining, it just made her daddy angry. She was walking with a hunched back. Emgie was trying to maintain as positive of an attitude as ever, but even her bursts of excitement and enthusiasm seemed forced. Mirage suffered in silence.

Mr. Benedict was wearing a hat with a net over the front, which made his face difficult to make out and kept it in a slight shadow.

"And just from there on the edge of the Quattara Depression to there on the cost of the Med, is the sand sea that the Afrika Korps defended that Montgomery punched through in the Battle of El Alamein" the tour guide pointed. To Mr. Benedict, he could almost picture the scene as if the tanks were still there now. To the girls, it was just another patch of desert.

"Could we go down there?" asked Mr. Benedict, "I would love to be able to step on the same land where Montgomery once stood."

"Yes, we may!" the tour guide smiled and they started to descend the sand dune.

The girls followed behind, dragging their feet. Until suddenly Bellagio - who'd been trailing behind - let out a scream.

Everyone turned to look and they saw Bellagio had sunk into the floor up to her waist.

"Oh my _god_ , that's hot!" Bellagio sneered as she tried to shove sand away from her bare skin.

"Bell!" Ocean cried and rushed over to help. Grabbing her arms, she pulled her out of the sand, with everyone else rushing over to lend a hand. Sand around Bellagio fell to fill in the gaps as she was pulled out.

Once she was out, Bellagio quickly doused her skin with the water from the bottle she had been carrying.

"Bella, dearest, are you ok?" asked Mr. Benedict, holding his daughter's shoulders and checking her over.

"I'm fine, Daddy," she replied.

"What was that?" asked Mirage, peering into the cone shaped hole Bellagio had left behind. "It was almost like quicksand..."

"You don't get quicksand here, little lady," the guide laughed, "And certainly not up on a dune."

"Maybe it was a _huge_ antlion!" Emgie cried, "A grand, massive one!"

Ocean stepped toward the hole - careful not to fall in lest it sink any more - and started brushing aside sand around it. She felt around under the hot sand and it felt like there wasn't much give underneath. She wiggled her hand in deeper and felt something hard. And searing hot.

"Ouch!" her arm snapped back like it was on a spring.

Emgie gasped excitedly, "It _is_ an antlion! It snapped you!"

"No no no, it was something hot."

"Well, let's dig it up then!" said Bellagio.

"But, what about the battlefield?" asked Mr. Benedict.

Bellagio scoffed. "You can go there if you'd like Daddy, but we're staying here," and she got on her knees to start shoveling sand aside with her sisters.

Mr. Benedict couldn't help but admit he too was curious as to what there was buried in the sand. So, he stayed and helped to shovel it out. The tour guide joined in too, with nothing to do.

After a while, since sand was falling back in from the slopes, they found that what was buried was something made of metal. This got everyone excited. Forgetting their exhaustion, everyone started working harder to really shovel sand out of the way. They eventually discovered that Bellagio had fallen into some sort of box compartment with an opening, and the weight she had put on the sand on top must have caused it all to collapse inside and bring her in with it. The compartment was at an angle and fairly deep.

With a bit more frantic digging and rummaging in the now much cooler sand, Ocean felt something that had some give. She grabbed onto it and pulled it out. And what she held in her hand was...

"A headset?" asked Bellagio, eyeing it. The cord was still attached to something and led back into the sand.

"What the devil have we found?" asked Mr. Benedict.

With even more excitement fueling them, they really started to get into it. For hours they were at it, shoveling sand out and away to get at whatever this thing was. Mirage hopped into the compartment to shovel sand out from within it, using Ocean's hat to carry some to give to someone else to chuck away. She found a seat and a radio that the headset was attached to. She managed to pull something else out of the sand.

"Oh wow..." she whispered to herself, "Guys!" she cried with a beaming smile on her face. A rare sight. "It's a shell!"

Several heads then peered inside and looked at Mirage, holding this shell like it was Christmas.

"Wow!" Ocean hollered. She leant forward and held out both hands saying, "Let me see it!"

Mirage passed it to her and Ocean's look of excitement rapidly changed to fright and she felt the entire weight of the shell pulling her down into the compartment. She kicked with her legs and mar Benedict quickly grabbed onto her shorts to stop her from falling. "Argh! Take it back!" she cried.

Mirage took the shell with one hand and peered at it like nothing was wrong.

"How heavy is that!?" Ocean asked.

"I'd say..." Mirage lifted it up and down in her hand effortlessly. "25 pounds?"

" _What_?!" Bellagio screeched. "That's immense!"

"I need to make a phone call," Mr. Benedict said, "We're getting someone over here to dig this up."

* * *

Friedrich spluttered and sat bolt upright in bed as the phone startled her. She rubbed her eyes and smacked her lips a bit wondering why she was awake. Then the realisation of the ringing phone finally dawned on her half-awake brain. She reached over and grabbed the phone, wondering who could possibly be calling her at... she checked the time... 1 in the morning.

She cocked an eyebrow at the name.

"Bellagio?" she answered, "What is it?"

" _Oh Friedrich, did I wake you?_ " Bellagio could hear it in her slightly slurred voice.

"Well, yes, it's one in the morning."

" _Oh yeah. Sorry about that, I'm in Egypt._ "

Friedrich blinked.

"... what?"

" _Never mind. I'm sending you some pictures. Do you know what this is? We've been digging it up for hours._ "

Friedrich sighed and looked at the photos that were just coming through. Then her eyes narrowed as she saw them. They were photos of what was, presumably, a tank, taken from several angles. It looked like a KV-2 with the box shaped superstructure, but the barrel was completely different. The chassis was also clearly not USSR, it looked more like the chassis of a British Valentine. Friedrich rubbed her temples and tried to think in her tired state. Nelson might know, but Nelson was probably asleep.

"I don't know, Bellagio. Why?"

" _Why?! Because we just got a new tank, that's why!_ "

Friedrich had been so tired she hadn't considered that. "Oh! Wh-what?! A new tank?"

" _Yeah, we found it and Daddy just bought it! It's authentic! They reckon it must have been buried during a sandstorm or something! Do you know anyone who might want to use it?_ "

"Well... no, not really..."

* * *

Checking her trumpet was sat properly in its carry case, Custer closed the lid and snapped it shut. She slipped on her coat, took the case, and grabbed her cowgirl hat just before she left and locked her apartment.

It was the weekend, so that meant Custer's afternoons were completely booked. At Nelson's suggestion, she, Friedrich and Yekaterina were spending the day shopping on the Roulette Strip. Nelson had invited Custer along, but the silly girl had forgotten that Custer was _never_ free on weekends.

Jazz club was at the SA-Grande. The school got access to the backstage rooms to practice in. It wasn't like they needed to rent out the theatre or anything, as the SA-Grande was owned by the school itself. The club was allowed to practice on one of the smaller stages, and anyone was free to come sit in and watch. It was hit or miss if that was worth anyone's time, though. One weekend the Maus Haus could be the practicing band of the day, the next week it could be some newly formed one with a singer that couldn't stay in key.

As of the last few weeks, the Maus Haus from the jazz club had been working together with the theatre club for an upcoming performance. So they had been practicing on one of the bigger stages the theatre club had access to.

Custer wasn't an official member of the Maus Haus, but they wanted her to be. She loved playing the trumpet, but it was a hobby for her. Something that made her her. She didn't see it as a life-long career choice.

Custer had become an affiliate member a couple of months ago. The jazz club had hosted a large gig at the SA-Grande. Several back-to-back performances by all the club's bands. Some bands had only just formed after the gig was announced.

But Custer had been left alone. All of the members of the club had a friend that they joined with; or had made quick friends and always played with them, so forming a band made sense; or even joined as a band to begin with. But Custer was shy, so when the time came for instrument players to start picking each other, Custer had sort of faded into the background, too afraid to speak up.

But, as luck would have it, she managed to find a band regardless.

Custer pushed open the double doors into the theatre. Walking past all the rows of seats, she saw what could only be described as her second circle of friends setting up on-stage.

"Hi, Custer!" Hoshi waved, before hopping off the stage to greet her.

"Hey, Hoshi," Custer returned in kind, glancing up at the girl who was more than a head taller than her.

"The theatre club's not using the stage this weekend. We've got the whole thing to ourselves!"

"Oh, cool! So we've got it all day?"

Hoshi nodded, a big smile on her face. "This is going to be so much fun!" she said excitedly, fists balled up. She was a very tall girl, with slender arms and a head of lovely brown, wavy hair that flowed down and curled up around her neck. She was also the head of the most popular and successful band in the club: the Maus Haus.

"I'm pleased with this, actually," Hoshi said, "I didn't like that we could only practice when the rehearsals reached our part. We've fallen behind on our practice. I guess the theatre club's not used to bringing in live bands. Now we can just practice all the songs all day!"

She bent over at the base of the stage to grab her instrument case. She opened it and pulled out her saxophone.

"Oh, that sounds cool!" said Custer. "I was getting a bit bored waiting for our part all the time. And I'm still not happy with my solo. I need to practice that more."

"Yes," Hoshi snapped her fingers. "I was planning on dedicating more time to practicing your bit. It's the climax after all, it needs to be perfect. Suzu, can you take my sax?"

Suzu had just finished wheeling her piano onto the stage, and so came over to the edge to take the saxophone in one hand and then help Hoshi up with the other. Like Hoshi, Suzu was also a relatively large girl, just in a different way. She was overweight, making her apple shaped, with a thick pair of arms and legs and a very large bust. Her presence could feel rather overwhelming at times. She had a chestnut bob cut and a very prominent beauty spot above her upper lip.

"Thanks, Suzu," said Hoshi, taking her saxophone back.

"No worries, dear," Suzu boomed. Her voice was naturally hollow, but she had a really impressive octave range, making her the singer of the group.

Custer leapt onto the stage without need of help. Then there was a ripple of drumming. Hiyoko was drumming from highest to lowest and finished with a tap of her cymbals.

"Seems tuned," she said with a grin, "Hi Custer."

"Hey Kiyoko," Custer replied. "You okay?"

"Okay and excited!" Kiyoko said. "We've been waiting to perform in the SA-Grande for ages!"

"Make sure you stay humble, Kiyoko," Hoshi warned, "We're here because of a favour, not because we were asked to be."

"I hear ya," Kiyoko rolled her eyes. "But I'm still allowed to be excited, though!"

Kiyoko was a slim girl that you could spot a mile away. If her beautifully bright smile didn't make her stick out, her attire certainly did. She wore deep dark purple stockings with stylish rips, a pair of white frilly cuffs protruding from the sleeves of the dark grey Roulette uniform. Her nose was studded, and her ears were pierced with several rings. Perhaps most conspicuous of all was her black pixie cut hair with green, blue and purple highlights.

" _Hoshi_ ," came a female voice over the tannoy system, " _Could you give me your saxophone a blow?_ "

Hoshi took her saxophone, and positioning herself in front of the mic stand, started to play a tune. Hoshi closed her eyes whenever she played, a habit she was completely oblivious to. She did it subconsciously because it helped her focus and hid the audience from her, and it made her look more enchanting. She got a little carried away and ended up playing the opening to _In the Mood_.

" _Okay, okay, I said give it a blow, not play the full works of Mozart_."

"How do I sound?" she asked.

"You sound just fine," Kotone walked out from backstage wearing a headset, and carrying a guitar case. "Hi, Custer."

"H-hey, Kotone," Custer waved. She was a little anxious around Kotone.

"I just need to get my bass set up, then do Custer's audio and we can get started."

Kotone was... short, not that you would admit that around her. She had a small face with a mouth that rarely smiled. Hair was a nuisance to her, so she regularly got it cut and kept what was left tied up into a pair of short pigtail tufts to keep it out the way. When she strummed her bass into her own microphone, she noted down her sound level along with the others on the palm of her hand with a pen she always had sticking out of her breast pocket.

Twirling the pen in her hand, she said, "Okay, just need to do Custer's and we're good to practice."

* * *

"We sounded _awesome_!" said Kiyoko, fist pumping as the band entered their dressing room.

"We sure did," said Hoshi. She pulled up the stool next to the makeup stand and sat down. "I'm so proud of you all!"

"Hoshi needs to not break down squealing after every performance," said Kotone, "But otherwise we did a good job."

"I can't help it!" Hoshi cried, "It's just so magical that we can perform so well together as a band!"

"Hoshi, we've been doing this for over a year now. Hasn't it lost its touch by now?"

"Lighten up, Kotone," said Suzu, slouching into the small two-man couch that she almost completely filled, "Don't bring Hoshi down to your level just because you can't get the same enjoyment."

"It's not that I can't get the same enjoyment," Kotone said with a scowl and crossing her arms, "It's just something to worry about."

"Oh?" Suzu asked half-heartedly, looking forward to hearing her excuse, "And why's that?"

"The upcoming play is going to be the biggest things we've ever done as band. Remember when we did our finale at Oktoberfest last year?"

The four band members looked between each other, and Hoshi flushed red.

"What happened?" asked Custer.

Kotone began to explain before Suzu cut her off, "Hoshi got a little overexcited when I managed to hit the high notes. We were worried I might ruin it, but... well, have you ever realised you perform better when it's the real deal than you do in practice?"

Custer knew that phenomena too well. Nelson called it 'social facilitation'. When Custer was younger, she practiced for a talent competition and ended up playing her trumpet better than she ever had during practice. The adrenaline of the moment made her focus.

Likewise, she and her friends talked about it when it came to Tankery. Yekaterina never shoots better than when they're against real opponents. De Brak never drives better. And Custer never speaks faster over the radio.

"Yeah. You could say I am," Custer replied with a smile.

"It was like that," Suzu continued, "Out of nowhere, I was like an opera singer," she said with a grin.

Kotone rolled her eyes at the self-praise.

"And Hoshi was just so happy she broke down into tears on stage," Suzu finished.

"It was just so beautiful!" said Hoshi.

"Anyway," said Kotone, hands on hips, "My point, Hoshi, is are you going to be able to keep it together for the real thing? If you're getting this flustered in practice..." she left it at that.

"Sure," Hoshi shrugged, "I kind of have to, don't I?"

Kotone scowled. Again.

"'I kind of have to'? You don't seem too both-"

"Kotone, let it go," said Kiyoko, "It's not like we're being paid to do our best."

At Kiyoko's request, Kotone kept her mouth shut.

The air hung for a little bit, before Kiyoko, wanting to relieve the tension said, "I'm going to disassemble my drums. Kotone, could you help?"

"Sure."

And the two left.

Custer took up seat next to Suzu. She'd been a little nervous to sit, as she felt like she didn't really belong in the dressing room.

"Umm..." she said, not feeling like it was her place to ask, but she was rather worried, "Are you guys usually...like... a little..." she wasn't sure how to ask without sounding accusatory.

"Yes," said Suzu, "It's usually Kotone, but we are like that sometimes."

"Doesn't it worry you?"

"Sometimes," said Hoshi, "I am worried she might cause a rift in the group, but..." she bit her lip. "But I can't bring myself to confront her because she is who she is."

Custer furrowed her brow in confusion, not quite sure what Hoshi meant.

Hoshi tried explaining, "It's not that Kotone is a bad person, or that she doesn't care. If she didn't care, she wouldn't be here. Her way of seeing things is very..." she searched for the right word, "Objective. It's something that I kind of admire. People don't like it when you're objective, they tend to see you as harsh, or cold. But it's necessary. Brutal honesty might be a better thing to call it."

Custer was nodding along, enthralled by Hoshi's way of explaining the faults in someone that was part of her group and making it look like an asset. She reminded her of someone else...

"And so," Hoshi continued, "That's the way she shows she cares. She tells us what's wrong, because she cares. She doesn't want things to go wrong, because she cares. By telling us what is wrong, she can then tell us how to make it better-"

"Because she cares?" asked Custer.

"Exactly. But she can't see that sometimes we don't mind and we're just trying to have fun with what we've already got, what we've already built together. But she wants to always strive for perfection."

"And it can get really annoying," said Suzu. "She's got good intentions, but man, she really gets on my nerves."

"I think our problem is that we don't do anything outside of the band, y'know?" said Hoshi, "The only memories we have of each other are memories spent in the band. Which are good memories, don't get me wrong!"

"But that's _all_ we have," said Suzu, "The good and the bad. It's not like we go down to the baths, or spend a night at the Seven Clovers."

"Why not?" asked Custer.

"Because outside of music, we don't actually have that much in common," Hoshi said sadly, and Custer could see she was genuinely distraught by having to admit that. "We've only been to the baths _once_. Kotone doesn't like gambling, Suzu doesn't like public nudity, Kiyoko doesn't like shopping," she stopped herself before she got any more depressed and sulked.

Custer felt bad. She'd brought this up. But she also felt bad for the team. They were bound to fall out one day at this rate.

"What if I could get all of you into a new hobby?" Custer asked.

"I'd try anything!" said Hoshi.

"Yeah, I want us to get along as well," said Suzu, "Kotone might be the one you'll have difficulty convincing. She's usually very busy."

"What did you have in mind, Custer?" asked Hoshi.

"Um, well... Tankery."

Hoshi scrunched her mouth in though and scratched her chin. "That might not be a bad idea, actually."

"We don't have any tanks at the moment-"

"There goes that plan, then!" Suzu said, and laughed a little too much at her joke. Hoshi gave her a dirty look.

"But, I could talk to Friedrich, my Commander. I could even get her to come here to pitch the idea to you all. We don't usually advertise the club because spots on it are so rare and competitive. There's more interest in it than there are tanks."

"Okay, well thank you, Custer!" said Hoshi and we walked over to the girl to give her a hug. "Keep us in the loop!"


	10. Queen of Clubs II

**Chapter 7: Queen of Clubs II**

* * *

Friedrich, Nelson and Yekaterina had spent several hours store hopping. This wasn't a day spent admiring lots of pretty clothes; Friedrich had all the jeans she could ever want, Nelson had most her own clothes sent from England, and Yekaterina just needed replacements for stuff she'd grown bored of or had been ruined. Instead - in-between sessions of gambling at the Seven Clovers to win the chips they would spend at the stores - the girls were surfing the Strip's gift shops.

Whilst taking a break from all the walking by taking a bath at the Pearl Cavern Spa & Lounge, Friedrich remembered she was meant to be asking Nelson something.

"Nelson, how's your British tank trivia?"

"Ooh, looks like Friedrich's commander side has punched its way to the surface!" Nelson said with a grinning nudge at Yekaterina.

Yekaterina tutted and said, "Yeah, you win, I'll pay for your tea."

"Yiss!" Nelson punched the air.

Friedrich looked confused.

"Oh, I just made a bet with Yeka that you wouldn't be able to not mention Tankery at some point today," Nelson said with a playful grin as she pushed the floating tray of tea over to Friedrich.

Friedrich felt played. "Well... just answer the question."

"It's pretty good. I've been doing my homework."

"Well, whilst out in Egypt-"

"This is escalating pretty quickly."

"-the Benedict sisters found a tank," Friedrich took the cup from the tray to take a drink. "I'm no expert, but the chassis looked British. The superstructure was also box shaped. And quite large."

"Hmm. Chassis was probably a Valentine. That was used a lot for several models. It was in Egypt, you say?"

Friedrich nodded.

"Hmm. African Campaign, perhaps? And a _box_ turret? You sure it wasn't a KV-2?" she giggled.

"Certain."

The only time Nelson didn't have her cheery smile was when she was thinking. Now she was just frowning.

And then she snapped her fingers, which was more of a wet slap than a snap.

"Bishop," she said, "Bishop SPG. Short barrelled?"

"Affirmative."

"Then it's certainly a Bishop. An artillery vehicle with a 25-pounder capable of direct and indirect fire. Produced in limited numbers because it was a poorly constructed vehicle. Its design was rushed because the African Campaign needed a 25-pounder vehicle quickly, so they just put the gun in a box, put the box on top of a spare Valentine chassis they had and shoved it out the garage door."

"I've never even heard of it," said Friedrich.

"I'm not surprised, it's a little obscure. I take it we have a new tank then?"

"Yeah, they found it and bought it and will be bringing it back."

"Do we even have anyone to crew it?" asked Yekaterina.

"Um...well... no."

* * *

That evening, Hoshi was in her dorm room in the SA-Grande. She was sat cross legged on her bed with her laptop, some sheets of paper and her headset. The light was off, and the only light came from the blazing glow of the screen and the strips of red, green and blue neon from the Strip that found their way past the curtains.

She was spending her evening how she usually did: doing her homework whilst listening to a jazz playlist. But now she was distracted, because this playlist was a golden find: it contained a song she'd never heard before. Then she found out why. The song she was currently listening to, _That Man_ by Caroe Emerald, was a modern jazz song.

Hoshi loved jazz and swing music. It reminded her of her youthful years spent growing up in Vegas. Right now, she was listening to the song over and over again, trying to figure out how she might be able to translate the lyrics to Japanese.

Translating was a process that used to take her a whole day, but now she could do it in a few hours. This was how the Maus Haus got all their music: Hoshi would take existing jazz songs and translate them. She did it on a whim with Frank Sinatra's _Blue Moon_ , and she and the others loved playing the song so much that they got Suzu to call in a few favours so they could play as an act at one of the local bars. As they say, the rest is history. Now they were about to play at the SA-Grande with their names appearing on posters plastered around the ship.

Hoshi wiped away a tear that had squeezed its way out. If she didn't keep control of herself she would just erupt into a fit of happy crying. She was a rather emotional person. She loved her friends so much. They meant the world to her. Even if they didn't realise it.

* * *

Lights off, hot chocolate prepared with whipped cream, bowl of popcorn, blanket spread on the couch tentatively inviting her over to come snuggle. Suzu was ready for a quiet night of alone Netflix-and-chill. It didn't bother her at all, Suzu was the kind of person that could be content with being with someone or alone. At least this way she could watch whatever she wanted.

She wrapped herself up in the blanket, wearing her comfortable cotton pyjamas, and started to catch up on episodes of Terrace House.

It was an hour into her "me time" when her phone rang. She stared daggers at it wondering who had the gall to call her this late at night. She grabbed it and saw it was... uncle Tony. All anger and frustration was flushed out of her system.

"Tony?" she answered.

" _Hey, pumpkin,_ " came her uncle's voice, hoarse and tired. " _How you doing?_ "

"Wh-wh... I... how am _I_ doing? How are _you_?! How long have you been up?"

" _Five minutes ago. The doctor's said I could make one call._ "

"And you chose me...?"

" _Yeah. Suzu, the doctors are saying I've been out for a year. Is that true?_ "

"Y-yes..." Suzu croaked, "You were in Vegas a year ago."

Tony tutted. " _The paperwork's probably piled up then_ ," he laughed. " _Well, I gotta hang up now. Look after yourself._ "

"Bye..."

When the line died she dropped her arm by her side. She tried watching the show again but was too distracted with ecstatic thoughts. She hated that Tony was involved with Mr. Benedict's… "activities", but damn it made life nice. Being the niece of a Mafia capo came with perks. She suspiciously won a lot at the Seven Clovers, but she tried not to go because she didn't want to encourage Mr. Benedict's awful economy.

But it also meant she could have the manager of the SA-Grande on speed dial and get stages booked for her band. It wasn't all bad. Morally grey, yes. But not all bad.

* * *

"Ready?" asked Kiyoko.

Kotone flexed her fingers and they clicked at all the joints. "Ready."

Kiyoko pressed play on her phone, and Kotone started the opening riff to _Through the Fire and the Flames_ on her electric guitar. Kiyoko joined in by pounding her drums.

And, just like every time before, Kotone cursed four and a half minutes in as she fumbled on the second guitar solo. They carried on until the end of the song, and she fumbled a bit more on the way.

"We nearly had it that time!" said Kiyoko, "That's the furthest you've got without a mistake!" her ever cheery smile was brightening the room and making Kotone feel better. Kotone usually brushed aside people's attempts to shed light on that which was negative - she was of the philosophy that by being constantly pessimistic you'll either be right or pleasantly surprised - but she couldn't help but blush when it was Kiyoko doing it.

Kiyoko stood up and stretched her arms over her head and arched her back for a stretch. When she did, her pixie cut fell away from her ears to show the many rings she had pierced, and her shirt that was ever so slightly too small was pulled up to give a peek of her pale belly with yet another stud piercing; all of which were little details about her that Kotone had to turn away from lest she get all flustered.

"We've been at this for over an hour, what time is it?"

"About... wow, it's ten already," Kotone replied with a check of her watch.

"Well, not that this isn't fun, honey, but I'm getting a little sick of the song," she giggled. "Shall we call it there for now?"

"Yeah, okay. Thanks for having me, Kiyoko."

"No worries! It was fun! I've never heard a song as intense as that before! I kinda wish I knew what they were singing about."

"I got Hoshi to translate the lyrics for me. It's mostly edgy stuff, but the music is still cool."

"Can I offer you something before you leave?"

It was an innocent offer, something Kiyoko suggested as a show of good manners for her guest. But Kotone's mind raced a little too quickly as it contemplated the deeper meaning behind it that didn't exist.

"Um, er... ahem... no thanks, I'm good."

Kotone swiftly left the apartment after that.

* * *

 **Several days later...**

"Oh my god, it's massive!" Friedrich remarked.

"It sure is!" remarked Caitlyn, a commander on the Tankery team. "It looks pretty whack!"

The Roulette Tankery club had been practising with some of the other teams that hadn't been in the Anzio match. The second Nahuel, the Tetrarch, the T-60, the TOG II*, Caitlyn's Panther/M10 and the second Sherman DD were all there, the drivers getting the tanks back into the garage with their commanders still inside and unbuttoned.

Friedrich had received a text to look over yonder and saw the Bishop cruising into the courtyard. Bellagio was standing on top of the superstructure with her arms crossed and a shark's grin on her face.

The other commanders gaped in awe at the oddly shaped tank. Friedrich heard someone mutter the inevitable comparison to a KV-2.

"When did we get _that_?" Caitlyn shouted.

"By the looks of it, ten seconds ago," said Friedrich, "They must have sent it back to Japan to get it retrofitted by the League and have come home from their vacation to pick it up."

"Holiday, Friedrich!" said Nelson, pulling herself out of the loader's hatch, "It's a holiday."

"What are we looking at?" asked Custer as she too pulled herself out of the tank. "W-woah! What's that?!"

"Oh yeah!" Friedrich said in realisation, "Nelson, we never told Custer about the Bishop!"

"You really should come hang out with us more, Custer!" Nelson tutted.

"I was _practising_! You know that!"

"Well, anyway," said Friedrich, "We have a new tank now."

Custer slammed her hand onto the top of the tank. "Do we have anyone to crew it yet?"

"No... why?"

"Because we do now!"

* * *

That Friday evening, the SA-Grande was bustling with patrons as people started to flock in to attend the theatre. Tonight was the night of the big performance. The posters had been hung up all around the ship, boasting of the collaboration between theatre club and the Maus Haus from the jazz club. Both were pretty well established and had made a name for themselves in the ship's community, with their roots steeped in Vegas culture.

Friedrich, Yekaterina and Nelson were in the queue to get into the theatre. Custer had managed to tip them off for when the tickets were going on sale so they could get some good seats. But Friedrich wasn't just here to see her good friend's performance on stage. Custer had managed to get her backstage permission so that, after the show, she could speak to Hoshi directly about joining the Tankery club.

Mr Benedict was already inside, having been granted VIP access, along with Bellagio, Ocean and Emgie. They were now sitting in the royal box with the lights turned off, completely invisible to anyone below that didn't squint to see if anyone was there.

The show went off without a hitch. The Maus Haus' first appearance was during the first act where the protagonist meets Mirage's character for the first time in a bar. They were performing a slow, sombre tune on a stage. Hoshi had written the songs herself, and her beautiful playing really set the scene and the atmosphere for the rest of the performance, coupled with the lovely melodic high notes from Suzu's piano. Mirage also performed her part well. She stuttered, of course, but that was part of the act.

The Maus Haus then provided backing tracks whenever needed. Sometimes in slow, intimate scenes where Hoshi's saxophone would take over with some occasional bass strums from Kotone, and sometimes in adrenaline fuelled shootouts towards the end where Suzu, Custer and Kiyoko would provide a high tempo.

And when the curtains fell, the performance was met with much applause, which was swiftly quietened when the curtains were drawn again to reveal the Maus Haus taking centre stage to give one last performance with some beautiful singing from Suzu, and a fantastic trumpet solo from Custer at the end that caused her whole face to turn red during the finale from blowing so hard.

Once again, the performance was met with applause, and the entire cast came out from backstage to line up and take a bow. And afterwards, as the audience began to file out of the theatre, Friedrich pushed against the crowd to get to backstage.

Custer met her at the backstage entrance, and she was bustling. She was overwhelmed with excitement and Friedrich's "Oh my god, well done, that was incredible!" wasn't helping her to calm down.

Eventually though, Custer took Friedrich by the hand to show her to the Maus Haus dressing room. Inside, Hoshi had gathered her band into a circle as a sort of debrief, to tell them how proud she was of them.

"Custer, there you are!" she said. "Where were you! We needed to have our post-performance group talk!"

"Oh, sorry, Hoshi. I had to go find my friend."

"And what's she doing here?" asked Kotone, "We don't do autographs in the dressing room."

"I'm not here for an autograph," said Friedrich, "I'm here to speak with you, Hoshi."

"Oh?" Hoshi was curious, and approached Friedrich to shake her hand, a greeting gesture that was common on the Roulette ship with its roots in American culture.

"I'm the commander of the Tankery club. Custer tells me you might be interested in joining."

"Well, yes, I am! It's a thing I would like all of us to do! I think we spend too much time together as a band, and I'm worried we might get sick of each other."

Friedrich laughed. "Tankery might not be for you, then! With the amount of stress you're put under and the responsibility that falls on everyone, you might grow to downright hate each other!"

"I say you're completely wrong," said Kotone, and Hoshi gave her a look for her somewhat rude way of speaking her mind, but that was just Kotone. "Mutual stress can bring people together and solidify bonds as you grow a sense of reliance on each other."

"I dunno, Kotone, I think you'd be a huge pain the ass if we're under heavy fire," Suzu laughed.

"Oh come on, Suzu, that's unfair," said Kiyoko, "Remember when we all debated who'd survive longest on a desert island? We decided it would be Kiyoko because she would only become more focused as she got more stressed."

"Hey, I was a close second!" said Suzu proudly.

"Yeah, but only if you just sat there and burnt away all your mass," said Kotone with a smirk.

"Are you starting something, Kotone?" Suzu asked with a cock of her eyebrow.

"Maybe."

"Kotone, I could sit on you and you would die."

"I don't doubt that."

"Sounds like you guys are pretty in sync already," said Friedrich. She then noticed the big smile on Hoshi's face as she watched Kotone and Suzu exchange banter. "What's so funny?" she asked her, genuinely curious.

"Oh, nothing, it just..."

"It just makes her happy to see us being friends," said Kiyoko, sauntering over and sliding a friendly arm over Hoshi's shoulder. "She does this all the time. She broke down crying once because Kotone and I were play flirting in the bath."

"You guys were just so _cute_!" Hoshi defended.

It was Friedrich's turn to grin brightly.

"What're you smirking at?" asked Kotone.

"Just at how perfect you guys seem to be to make a tank crew," Friedrich answered with crossed arms.

"Are we though?" Kotone asked cynically, "We don't have any interest in tanks and we have no skills in anything to do with crewing one."

Friedrich scoffed. "You think you need to have prior qualifications to join the club?"

"Are you sure you just don't have low standards?"

"Listen here," Friedrich squared up to Kotone and looked her in the eye, and under her intense gaze that had made Anchovy quake in her cupola, Kotone was also left speechless as she fell victim to Friedrich's military commander's stare. "You guys have the only talent you need to meet my high standards: you are all friends- don't you roll your eyes at me!"

Kotone snapped her heels together, not to mock Friedrich but as a genuine response to the commander's sharp tone.

"If I had the choice between a qualified gunner, driver and commander," Friedrich continued, "or a crew of three that could get along with each other, I'd take the latter. Friendship ensures a well-oiled machine. You know how to speak to each other. You know how you all think. You know how to get along. You'll be comrades, but you'll also be rivals, which only strengthens your determination to perform well."

Friedrich turned to look at Hoshi. "And I imagine something similar can be said for being in a band."

"It...it can, actually", said Hoshi.

"So you see," said Friedrich, "The four of you are a perfect addition to the club. Are you in?"

The four band members exchanged glances with each other.

* * *

"Holy cow, it's huge!" Kiyoko remarked as De Brak drove the Bishop out the garage for them. "I thought tank turrets were meant to be... like... flat?"

"Err... this one's an exception," Friedrich scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

"It's beautiful!" Hoshi cried with her hands clasped together. "What kind of tank is it?"

"It's a British Bishop self-propelled gun launcher," Friedrich answered. "Once its parked, I'll have my girls show you the inside, and how to load and fire it."

Some artists from the Maginot Maginot dorm had already been to paint the school logo and crew emblem onto the side of it. As was standard, Friedrich drew a random card from a pack for a crew name and it came out as the Queen of Clubs.

But at the band's request, the painters also added something extra: the band's logo alongside the crew emblem. A rotund white shaped house with a black outline, and the silhouette of a mouse playing the saxophone in the middle.

Suzu was already off to one side being given a brief by Yekaterina on the basics of using the gun. Akisa, the gunner from the SU-76I, was also there giving expert advice on the fundamentals of shooting itself.

Kotone had drifted off to admire some of the other tanks. Being a student on the engineering curriculum rather than general studies, she was certainly interested in the construction of tanks, but had never gone out of her way to read more about them. But she was at least knowledgeable enough to recognise the Valiant. She took a moment to admire what she knew to be the worst tank ever made, before being introduced to its extroverted commander Akisa. She made her excuses and left, that excuse being "I don't like you."

Kiyoko was shown the loading process by Nelson once they were able to climb inside. Kiyoko was chosen as the loader simply because all the other positions had been taken. Hoshi was voted as the commander by everyone else, much to her surprise but not anyone else's. Suzu asked for the driver's position because she liked to sit, but Kotone said "There's no way we're not letting _me_ drive the really complex machine," so Suzu was moved to gunner.

For today's practice, Friedrich split most of the other crews into two teams so they could go have a mock match, while she focused on showing the new team the ropes. She always kept an eye on new teams, especially when they ask to join of their accord - so Friedrich could figure out if the team really did click and might not be a deficit to the team. She didn't have to do that so much with this crew, she had already experienced first-hand that they were in sync.

Hoshi was nervous being a tank commander, not that Friedrich could blame her. The poor girl was used to just overseeing a band where everyone else knew what they were doing and what their place was. Now, inside this metal beast she didn't fully understand that was constantly roaring at her, she had to command every spin of the tracks and every fire of the turret.

Kotone didn't even look at the instruction manual. While Friedrich was giving Hoshi a brief on the basics of commanding, Kotone fiddled with the controls to map a picture in her head of the internal components. It was common sense, really.

The shells were _heavy_. Kiyoko struggled with the weight and Friedrich suggested if it might be worth swapping her with an experienced loader from a smaller calibre tank until she got stronger.

"Are you kidding?" asked Kiyoko, "I can't not be part of the team while they're still learning! The learning process will be where we completely connect as a team and figure out how to work together!"

Friedrich smiled when she realised Kiyoko had a point.

Suzu was enjoying her position as gunner, and quite often gave Kiyoko a helping hand with the shells. Friedrich figured that since the gun on the Bishop couldn't turn, it would be up to Kotone to get it align, so during those times Suzu would be wasted if she wasn't helping her loader with the heavy shells.

Friedrich had high hopes for this crew. Hopefully, with them, and all the others she was training, they could realise her dream of being able to shake Miho Nishizumi's hand after a victory to Roulette.


End file.
